










4 o >- </"' 



V 






<'. 



t; 



.0 



G'^^ 









.0' 



' <?\'.„ ia---< 














-^^ 



o V 





•Ao^ 






"oV 











0° .^^> °o 






-^.-0^ 



^oV" 







IN THE DAYS OF 
THE PILGRIM FATHERS 



13r ^diw Caroline CralnforD 

Old Ik»TO!M Datm a-nd Ways 
RoMAxnc Days r* nir, Kahi-y Hwmi i' 
Thk Romajhck or twk AurmcA.^ Thkatm 
SodAi, Ijrz V* Old Nrw F>ioi^<«d 
In -niK D^>- ftr thk Pm/jHIH ysTHr.nm 




Copyright, A. S. Bnrhank, Plymouth, Mass. 
GOVERNOR EDWARD WINSLOW 

This is the only authentic portrait of a Mayflower Pilgrim and was painted in England 
shortly before Winslow's death in 1655 at the age of 51. The original is in Pilgrim Hall, 

Plymouth. 



m THE DAYS OF 
THE PILGRIM FATHERS 



BY 



MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 



ILLUSTRATED ^ 



NON-REFFRf 




^VAD-Q3S 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1920 






Copyright, 1920, 
Bt Little, Bkown, and Compant. 



/ 



All rights reserved 
Published May, 1920 



Xi- 



m -2 1920 ^ 



Nortooot Pwaa 

Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Gushing Co, 

Norwood, Mass,, U.S.A. 

o ' / 

©CI.A571179 ^ ^ 



*i- 



; s 



Out of small beginnings great things have 
been produced, and as one small candle 
may light a thousand, so the light 
here kindled hath shone to many — 

— Bradford. 



The coming hither of the Pilgrim three centuries ago shaped the 
destinies of this Continent, and therefore profoundly affected the 
destiny of the whole world. 

— Theodore Roosevelt, at the laying of the corner 
stone of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument at 
Provincetown, Massachusetts, April 20, 1907. 



New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good 

uncouth ; 
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of 

Truth : 
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! We ourselves must Pilgrims be. 
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate 

winter sea. 
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key. 
— J. R. Lowell, in "The Present Crisis", 1844. 



If a man says that he does not care to know where his grandfather 
lived, what he did, and what were that grandfather's politics and 
religious creed, it can merely mean that he is incapable of taking 
interest in one of the most interesting forms of human knowledge — 
the knowledge of the details of the Past. 

— The London Spectator. 



FOREWORD 

At a time when the words "Pilgrim" and 
"Pilgrim Fathers" are on everybody's lips, it is 
worth while to point out that these terms, as used 
in American history, were unknown till the closing 
years of the eighteenth century. The pioneers 
who settled at Plymouth never thought of them- 
selves or spoke of themselves as Pilgrims, — save 
in that instance where Bradford, using the word 
in a figurative and Scriptural sense, says of his 
companions as they are about to migrate from 
Leyden, "so they lefte that goodly & pleasante 
citie, which had been ther resting place near 
12. years ; but they knew they were pilgrimes 
& looked not much on those things, but lift up 
their eyes to the heavens, their dearest cuntrie 
and quieted their spirits." As applied specifically 
to the early settlers at Plymouth, the word "Pil- 
grim", we are told by Albert Matthews, authority 
on early American history, — first appeared in 
1798, and "Pilgrim Fathers" in 1799. Oddly 
enough, it was Thomas Paine who (in an account 
printed in the Columbian Centinel of the 177th 
Anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock) 



viii FOREWORD 

first bestowed this term on the early settlers ; 
Thomas Paine, whose name has long been anath- 
ema to devout sons and daughters of the Pilgrim 
Fathers ! 

But if the forefathers at Plymouth did not call 
themselves Pilgrims, neither did they call them- 
selves Puritans. That term they not only did not 
use, but emphatically disavowed. Bradford, in- 
deed, twice expresses his dislike for the term on 
the ground that it was one of reproach, like the 
term Quaker. "And to cast contempte the more 
upon the sincere servants of God," he says in one 
place, "they opprobriously and most unjustly 
gave unto and imposed upon them that name of 
Puritans ; which (it) is said the novatians (out of 
pride) did assume and take unto themselves." 
And in another place he says: "The name of 
Brownists is but a nick-name, as Puritan and 
Hugenot, etc., and therefore they do not amiss 
to decline the odium of it in what they may." 

But it was not simply because the term Puritan 
was one of reproach that the Forefathers did not 
use that name in writing or in speaking of them- 
selves. They were not Puritans but Separatists. 
The Puritan, in England at any rate, was a 
Nationalist, believing in the union of Church 
and State, however desirous he might be that 
the Church of England should be thoroughly 
reformed ; while the Pilgrim was a Separatist 
not only from the Anglican Prayer Book and 
Queen Elizabeth Episcopacy but from all national 



FOREWORD ix 

churches. The Pilgrim wanted Hberty for him- 
self, for his brothers, and for those of his house to 
walk with God in Christian life as the rules and 
motives of such a life were revealed to him from 
God's Word. For that he went into exile ; for 
that he crossed the ocean; for that he made his 
home in the wilderness. 

Just as there is great confusion between Pilgrims 
and Puritans, so it is far from clear to most Ameri- 
cans that, for more than sixty years, that is from 
1628 to 1691 — when the Colony at Plymouth 
and that centering about Salem, Charlestown, and 
Boston, were merged under one Constitution — 
what we now call Massachusetts, consisted of two 
distinct colonies, two centers of life and influence, 
which, though separated geographically by only 
forty miles, were in every other respect very far 
apart. Almost the only thing which these two 
Colonies had in common was the allegiance which 
both conceded to England. 

In view of the scores of scholarly tomes which 
have been written concerning the Pilgrims and 
the Puritans, the ways in which they resembled 
each other and the things which differentiated 
them ; their modes of life ; their ideals ; their 
church practices ; their backgrounds ; and their 
relation to the social and political life of America 
during the last three hundred years, one needs 
indeed to have courage to undertake, at this stage 
of the world's history, to write another book on 
the subject. The more one reads the more aghast 



X FOREWORD 

one grows at this task. Yet I hold it to be true 
that however well the history of any epoch may 
have been written, it is desirable that it should 
be rewritten from time to time by those who look 
at the subject under discussion from the point of 
view of their own era. So here is one more book, 
a book which I have found it very interesting to 
write, whether any one finds it interesting to read 
or not. Without more ado I present it to that 
kind public which has been so hospitable to my 
writings in the past, taking further space at this 
point only to acknowledge my particular indebted- 
ness, among books, to Goodwin's " Pilgrim Re- 
public " and to the exhaustive volumes of Dr. 
H. M. Dexter and his son. I wish also to thank 
the courteous attendants at the Boston Athe- 
naeum and the Boston Public Library, who have 
given me most generously of their time, their re- 
sources, and their scholarship ; to express my 
gratitude to the friends from far and near who 
have helped in the matter of pictures, and to 
acknowledge the kindness of the New England 
Society of Pennsylvania, by whose permission I 
am able to reproduce on the book's cover the 
Saint Gaudens statue, known as "The Pilgrim", 
which this organization caused to be erected in 
1905 in City Hall Square, Philadelphia. 

M. C. C. 

Boston, April, 1920. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I The College that Cradled the PtiRiTAN Idea . 1 

II In Which Certain Puritans Become "Pilgrims" 14 

III The First Migration 26 

IV The Formative Years in Leyden .... 39 
V The England from Which They Fled . . .59 

VI How They Sailed into the Unknown ... 93 

VII How They Set Up a Home in the New World . 108 

VIII How They Met and Overcame the Indians . 138 

IX How They Made Their Laws and Tried to Live 

Up to Them 179 

X How They Established "Freedom to Worship 

God" 204 

XI Some Early Books about Plymouth . . . 230 

XII Social Life in the Pilgrim Colony . . . 258 

Appendix 

Bradford's "Who's Who" of the Mayflower 

Passenger List 279 

A " Comic Relief" Chapter in Plymouth History 288 

Index 315 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Governor Edward Winslow ..... Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

The College on the Cam as It Looks Today .... 6 

House Built by William Crow in 1664 ..... 7 

A Page of the Register in the Austerfield Church ... 22 

Church in Austerfield where Bradford was Baptized . . 23 

The Church and Vicarage at Scrooby ..... 28 

Court Room of the Guild Hall in Old Boston ... 28 

Birthplace of WUliam Bradford in Austerfield ... 29 

The Court of a Dutch House ....... 40 

John Robinson's House, Leyden, Holland .... 41 

Delftshaven, Holland 54 

Plymouth Rock 55 

The Stone which Marks the Place at Plymouth, England, 
where the Mayflower Passengers Transferred from the 

Speedwell, en route to the New World . ... 55 

Gravestone Erected on Burial Hill, Plymouth, to Thomas 

'^^ Clarke, "Mate of the Mayfloioer" 94 

Memorial Tablet on the Governor William Bradford Estate, 

Kingston . 94 

Stone Erected on Burial Hill, Pljnnouth, to John Rowland . 95 

The Canopy over the Rock 108 

A Plymouth Vista 109 

Leyden Street, Plymouth, in 1622 112 



xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

The Pilgrim Meersteads along the Town Brook . . .113 

Sampler now in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Wrought by Miles 

Standish's Daughter 128 

Miles Standish's Grave, Duxbury 129 

The Town Brook, Plymouth 148 

A Picturesque Corner of Old Plymouth 149 

The First Map Engraved in this Country (1677) . . .174 

Some Old Plymouth Houses 175 

First Ecclesiastical Map of New England . . . .214 

A Page of the Old Bay Psalm Book 215 

The First Page of the Bradford Manuscript .... 230 

Bradford House, Kingston, 1675 . ... . . .231 

John Alden House, Duxbury, 1653 231 

Elizabeth Paddy Wensley 264 

Madame Padishal and Child 265 

Elder Brewster's Chair and the Cradle of Peregrine 'White, the 

First Pilgrim Baby 272 

House on Captain's Hill, Duxbury, Built in 1666 by the Son 

of Miles Standish, and Still in Use 273 



ri 



IN THE DAYS OF 
THE PILGRIM FATHERS 



IN THE DAYS OF THE 
PILGRIM FATHERS 

CHAPTER I 

THE COLLEGE THAT CRADLED THE PURITAN IDEA 

It is an historic saying that "Cambridge bred 
the founders of the EngHsh Reformation and that 
Oxford burned them." There is a good deal of 
truth in this observation, though Dean Stubbs of 
Ely, who has written a delightful book about 
Cambridge, seems disposed to believe that the 
greater hospitality accorded to the Puritans by 
Cambridge came not so much because this univer- 
sity welcomed the gospel of the scholars of Geneva 
more cordially than did Oxford, as because the 
people of East Anglia, in which Cambridge is 
situated, had been saturated, two centuries before, 
with the Bible teaching of the "poore Priestes" 
of Wycliffe's school and had cherished this teach- 
ing ever since. But whatever the cause of Cam- 
bridge's comparatively cordial acceptance of the 
Puritan idea, the fact cannot be denied. If any 
English university were friendly to the Puritans, 
Cambridge was that university. 



2 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

It was always William Brewster's belief that 
his radical religious ideas originated in Cambridge, 
where — at the college of Peterhouse — he matric- 
ulated in December, 1580. There is no record 
that Brewster ever received a degree from Cam- 
bridge ; we do not even know whether he remained 
at the university two years or only a few months. 
Nor was Peterhouse the most radical of the Cam- 
bridge colleges. But the whole atmosphere of the 
university was electric, at this time, with radical 
tendencies, and young Brewster eagerly drank in 
the thoughts poured out by the notable Puritans 
and Separatists then in residence : the eminent 
Calvinist, Peter Baro, Professor of Divinity at 
this time ; William Perkins, whose books Brewster 
later owned ; Udall, Perry, Greenwood and George 
Johnson. Under these influences Brewster, as 
Bradford tells us, was "first seasoned with the 
seeds of grace and virtue." Here, too, he achieved 
a firm knowledge of Latin and "some insight into 
Greek." Without exaggeration, therefore, we may 
attribute to Cambridge University an important 
place among the formative influences which made 
William Brewster the man he was. 

Cambridge was also the university home of 
Thomas Cartwright, who has been described as 
the head and most learned of that sect of dissenters 
then called Puritans. He was a Fellow at the 
same table at Trinity with Archbishop John 
Whitgift, who owed his Primacy, in 1583, very 
largely to the vigorous manner in which he fought 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 3 

the doctrine which Cartwright was then pro- 
mulgating. Cartwright is of particular interest 
to students of Pilgrim history because William 
Brewster was harried out of Holland for having 
printed a book of his. 

Moreover, it was at Cambridge that John 
Robinson received his education. For a long 
time we did not know this with certainty. The 
cloudiness came about, first, because of Robinson's 
extremely common name, and second, because his 
published writings are almost entirely free from 
forms of expression which would suggest that the 
Pilgrim pastor had enjoyed a university education. 
A few years ago, however, all doubts in regard to 
this great leader's Cambridge training were set 
at rest by Champlin Burrage, who unearthed in 
the Bodleian Library a three-hundred-year-old 
manuscript replying to a lost writing of Robinson's ; 
and replying in such a way as to establish clearly 
the following very important facts of the great 
pastor's career : that he was admitted to Corpus 
Christi, or Benet College, in 1592 ; approved for 
a B.A. degree in February, 1595 or 1596 ; and on 
March 27, 1597, admitted and sworn among the 
Fellows of this College. On March 28, 1599, 
he took his degree of M.A. Most important of 
all, Mr. Burrage was able to identify this John 
Robinson (for there had previously been a con- 
fusion with another Cambridge scholar of precisely 
the same name) as "John Robinson of Notting- 
hamshire A.M. and Priest", mentioned fifth in 



4 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the list of College Fellows, in the Register under 
the date of 1602. 

Thus there is clear proof not only of Robinson's 
academic connection but, also, that at this period 
of his life he was in the service of the Church. 
The church which he served was that of St. An- 
drew's, Norwich, which is still standing and still 
in use. While there he married (February 15, 
1603 or 1604) Bridget White. We may conclude 
that he was about twenty-seven at this time; 
though since the exact year of his birth, the 
church in which he was baptized, and his parentage 
are all unknown, one cannot be certain about this. 

One important thing that we do know, however, 
about Robinson and about his Cambridge con- 
nection is that it was here, while tormented with 
doubts as to whether he should or should not 
remain in the Established Church, he heard 
preached two sermons about the Light and Dark- 
ness *' between which God hath separated" and 
"the Godly hereby are endangered to be leavened 
with the others wickedness" which determined 
the trend of his future work in the world. 

Robinson drifted from Norwich to Lincolnshire, 
where his name is indissolubly connected with 
the history of Gainsborough and of Scrooby. 
But though he was with the Scrooby group before 
their departure for Amsterdam he was not promi- 
nent among them until the congregation removed 
from Amsterdam to Ley den. Then he suddenly 
began to take a leading part in the controversies 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 5 

of the Separatists and to be recognized as the 
pastor of the Ley den Brownists. 

Corpus Christi, Cambridge, was the college 
home not only of John Robinson, but also of 
several other men who subsequently became 
leaders of the Puritan Party. The story of the 
rise of this famous foundation is, therefore, not 
without interest for us, — more especially since 
it was hoped by the guild which founded the 
college that through the ceremonies connected 
with the festival of Corpus Christi "the perfidy 
of Heretics" should be confounded ! 

Two guilds, indeed, had a share in bringing the 
college into being. Thomas Fuller tells of this in 
the following picturesque manner : 

Here at this time were two eminent guilds or frater- 
nities of townsfolks in Cambridge, consisting of brothers 
and sisters, under a chief annually chosen, called an 
alderman. 
The Guild of Corpus The Guild of the Blessed 

Christi, keeping their Virgin observing their 

prayers in St. Benedicts offices in St. Mary's 

Church. Church. 

Betwixt these there was a zealous emulation, 
which of them should amortize and settle best main- 
tenance for such chaplains to pray for the souls of 
those of their brotherhood. Now, though generally 
in those days the stars outshined the sun ; I mean 
more honour (and consequently more wealth) was 
given to saints than to Christ himself; yet here the 
Guild of Corpus Christi so outstript that of the Virgin 
Mary in endowments, that the latter (leaving off any 



6 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

further thoughts of contesting) desired an union, 
incorporated together. 2. Thus being happily married 
they were not long issueless, but a small college was 
erected by their united interest, which bearing the 
name of both parents, was called the College of Corpus 
Christi and the Blessed Mary. However, it hath 
another working-day name, commonly called (from 
the adjoined church) Benet College ; yet so, that on 
festival solemnities (when written in Latin, in public 
instruments) it is termed by the foundation name 
there.^ 

That the college with which John Robinson 
and a number of other Puritan leaders were as- 
sociated should have sprung from the most demo- 
cratic institution of the times, the guilds, is 
eminently appropriate. For the guilds stood above 
everything else for personal independence coupled 
with rugged respect for the law. Yet there is an 
aspect of the foundation's history which is not 
without humor. Most writers assert that the 
motive for the joint benefaction, made as above 
described by worthy workers of Cambridge, is 
unknown. But the fact that the Black Death 
had just been raging in England — killing great 
numbers of priests as well as laymen, and this in 
the day when dying men desired (and required) 
to have masses sung for them — makes it quite 
believable that the Cambridge tradesmen had a 
thrifty eye to the future when they set up a col- 
lege all their own. Further to promote good 

1 Fuller's "History of the University." P. 98. 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 7 

feeling at "the general meeting", when town and 
gown usually feasted together, they all "dranke 
their ale (of which they kept good store in their 
cellars) out of a great Horn finely ornamented 
with silver gilt", — and presented to them by said 
tradesmen. 

The festivities connected with the Annual 
Nameday observation of the College loomed large 
for nearly two hundred years. Thomas Fuller 
describes these celebrations thus characteristically : 

A great solemnity was observed by the Guild every 
Corpus Christi day (being always the Thursday after 
Trinity Sunday), according to this equipage : — ■ 1. The 
Alderman of the Guild for that year (as Master of 
the Ceremonies) went first in procession. ^. Then 
the Elders thereof (who had been aldermen, or were 
near the ofiice), carrying silver shields enamelled in 
their hands, bestowed on the brotherhood, some by 
Henry, Duke of Lancaster, some by Henry Tangmer 
aforementioned. 3. Then the Master of this College, 
in a silk cope under a canopy, carrying the Host in 
the pix, or rich box of silver-gilt, having two for the 
purpose: 1. One called "the gripe's eye" given by 
Henry Tangmer; 2. Another, weighing seventy- 
eight ounces, bestowed by Sir John Cambridge. 
4. Then the Vice Chancellor, with the University 
men in their seniorities. 5. Lastly the mayor of the 
town and burgesses thereof. Thus from Bene't church 
they advanced to the great bridge, through all the 
parts of the town, and so returned with a good appetite 
to the place where they began. 

Then in Corpus Christi College was a great dinner 



8 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

provided them, where good stomachs meeting with 
good cheer and welcome, no wonder if mirth followed 
of course. Then out comes the cup of John Goldcorn 
(once Alderman of the Guild), made of an horn, with 
the cover and appurtenances of silver and gilt, which 
he gave this Company, and all must drink therein. . . . 

It is remarkable that, in the procession, that canopy 
under which the Host was carried fell on jBre, leaving 
men to guess, as they stood affected, whether it was 
done casually by the carelessness of the torchbearers, 
or maliciously by some covertly casting fire thereon 
out of some window — or miraculously to show that 
God would shortly consume such superstition. And, 
indeed, in the twenty-seventh of King Henry VII, 
when Thomas Legh, Doctor of Law, visited the Uni- 
versity, the same was finally abrogated. Then those 
silver trinkets were sold, and those shields had their 
property altered, to fence and defraud the College 
from wind and weather, being converted into money 
and laid out in reparations. 

However, the townsmen still importunately claimed 
their dinner as due unto them, in so much that Richard 
Roulfe, then Mayor of the town, required it of the 
College in a commanding manner. The Master and 
Fellows whereof resolved to teach the townsmen a 
distinction, to put the difference betwixt a debt and a 
courtesy, this dinner falling under the latter notion. 
They reminded them also of the maxim in logic, how 
sublata carusa tollitur effectus, "the procession the 
cause being taken away, the dinner (as the effect) 
ceased therewith." But, the belly having no ears, 
nothing would satisfy the other party, save a suit, 
themselves prejudging the cause on their own side. 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 9 

Insomuch that they brewed in their hopes, they 
broached in their brags, boasting that as the houses 
belonging to this College came originally from towns- 
men, so now they should return to the townsmen again, 
as forfeited for the default of this dinner. Yea, so 
confident they were of success, that they, very equally- 
unequally (because invading other men's right), di- 
vided aforehand such houses amongst themselves. 
But the worst and coldest fur is what is to be made of 
a bear's skin, which is to be killed. 

For the College procured that certain Commissioners 
were sent down by the King (amongst whom were 
John Hind, Knight, Sergeant-at-Law, and John Hutton, 
esq.) to examine the matter, and summon the Master 
and Fellows to appear before them : who, appearing 
accordingly, produced most authentical evidences and 
charters of mortmain, whereby their lands in Cam- 
bridge were sufficiently conveyed and confirmed unto 
them. And thus the townsmen, both hungry and 
angry at the loss both of their dinner and houses, were 
fain to desist. 

One of the greatest names connected with 
Corpus Christi College is that of Matthew Parker, 
who, after a troubled academic career, became 
second Archbishop of Canterbury. There is an 
amusing story about a visit paid to the college 
by Queen Elizabeth, during Parker's time, which 
shows us why this worthy man was forced to retire 
when Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553. 
Parker had in 1547 married Margaret Harls- 
borne, a woman of such grace and charm that one 
high dignitary of the Church, Bishop Ridley, asked, 



10 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

when taking his leave after a visit, whether Mrs. 
Parker had a sister. Evidently the good bishop 
did not share the imperious Elizabeth's prejudice 
in favor of a celibate clergy. Elizabeth, on 
taking her leave, had remarked to her hostess, 
^' Madam, I may not call you; and Mrs. I am 
ashamed to call you ; so I know not what to call 
you ; but yet I do thank you." 

At the time John Robinson was in residence 
at Corpus Christi, Puritanism was so prevalent 
in Cambridge University that it had to be some- 
what tolerated, definite as was the feeling against 
it. It was here that Robert Browne, pioneer 
of Congregationalism, had been educated, and 
here, too, that John Smyth, who later went into 
exile at Amsterdam for opinion's sake, had been 
a Fellow. Yes, ''Cambridge bred the Founders of 
the English Reformation." This is an historical 
verity ; yet no one of the learned men who have 
spent a lifetime in research concerning either 
the influences that emanated from Cambridge 
University or the early history of the Pilgrims in 
England dwells much on this phenomenon. The 
reason is not far to seek. The men who write 
the histories of Cambridge are mostly Church- 
men and dismiss with a mere footnote the regret- 
table truth that the "Separatists" and "Dissent'* 
attained a considerable foothold in their College 
during the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
On the other hand, to the writers who approach 
the subject with the Pilgrims chiefly in their 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 11 

mind, the facts and dates connected with Robert 
Browne, just referred to as the pioneer of Con- 
gregationahsm, naturally loom largest. And 
Browne died in the Church of England ! 

Robert Browne was born at Tolethorpe in 
Rutlandshire about 1550. Though little is known 
of his childhood it is clear that he was of gentle 
blood and influential family. He entered Corpus 
Christi, or Benet College, at Cambridge in 1570 
and in due course received, in all probability, the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. The fact that in 
1571 he was chaplain in the family of the Duke 
of Norfolk rather confuses his history at this 
point because one would not expect to find an 
undergraduate so engaged. Already, however, 
he had come under Puritan influences and for 
some years had been speaking occasionally, on 
Sundays, to Puritan congregations who were wont 
to gather in a gravel pit in Islington, though, be- 
tween times, he earned his living teaching school 
at Southwark, a part of London. 

Then the plague broke out and Browne re- 
turned to his home. Soon he reappeared at 
Cambridge as a theological student and, so great 
were his gifts that, in spite of his well-known 
Puritan tendencies, he was invited to a pulpit 
in Cambridge itself. This he declined, preferring 
to preach boldly in unsanctified places against 
the authority of the bishops. As a result the 
bishop and council of the diocese forbade his 
further preaching in the college town. 



12 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Norwich in Norfolk promised to give him 
Kberty of thought and a congenial field for his 
labors, so he removed to that town and there 
lived with Robert Harrison, a friend who held 
views similar to his. Here, about 1580, he 
organized and became pastor of the first purely, 
and formally established. Congregational Church 
on record in England. Naturally the authorities 
disapproved of his teachings, and but for the 
mediation of Lord Treasurer Burleigh, who 
appears to have been a relative, it would have 
gone hard with him. As it was he found it con- 
venient to emigrate with his followers to Middel- 
burg in Zealand. Here he stayed for two years. 
And here were printed three treatises from his 
pen, which were deemed so revolutionary, when 
distributed in England, that the Queen issued a 
special proclamation against them, and at least 
two men, John Copping and Elias Thacker, were 
hanged for giving them circulation. 

Browne's followers were hanged. But Browne 
himself recanted. From leading the religious 
radicals in Holland, and later in Scotland, he 
returned, about 1586, to England and to the 
Church of his boyhood. The last forty years of 
his life were passed as rector of an insignificant 
parish in the diocese of Peterborough. About 
ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 
Rock he died in Northampton jail, to which place 
he had been committed for striking a constable 
who had been rude to him in his old age. 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 13 

Robert Browne is the Benedict Arnold of 
ecclesiastical history. Church of England writers 
not unnaturally condemn him for leading the most 
important schism their communion has ever 
known. And the Puritan chroniclers lash him 
unmercifully for having been "false to the light 
that was in him." To one who is writing without 
theological bias, however, his career is exceedingly 
interesting because full of variety and color. 
That career partly belongs to this chapter because 
Browne appears to have somehow got his first 
inspiration at Cambridge. But it belongs also 
to the chapter in which will be studied the be- 
ginnings of the New England Republic, because 
it is to Browne and Brownism that the seeds of 
modern democracy, as we know it to-day in 
America, can most directly be traced. 



CHAPTER II 

in which certain puritans become 
"pilgrims" 

We have seen that it was in East England, 
especially in the University of Cambridge, that 
Puritanism had its earliest home. Edwin D. 
Mead hazards the thought that it may have 
been within the very walls of the university that 
the agreement was signed which founded the 
Massachusetts enterprise ! However this may 
be, Bradford himself assures us that it was in 
the university at Cambridge that William 
Brewster was " first seasoned with the seeds of 
grace and virtue " ; and to William Brewster, if to 
any single person, must be accorded the honor of 
being the father of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

Born just as Elizabeth's reign began, Brewster 
came to Court to enter the services of Sir William 
Davison in the very heyday of the Elizabethan 
era. It was at this very time that Shakespeare, 
four years younger than Brewster, journeyed up 
to London from Stratford ; and Sir Philip Sidney, 
who was six years older than Brewster, Spenser, 
who was seven years his senior, and Raleigh, 



PURITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 15 

who had eight years the advantage of him in age, 
were Hkewise at Court at this same momentous 
period in the world's history. That so young a 
man as WilUam Brewster should have been ac- 
corded, in such company as this, the responsible 
and confidential place which he occupied in the 
service of Elizabeth's great Secretary of State 
proves him to have been endowed with high 
qualities of character. Bradford tells us that 
Davison "trusted him above all others that were 
about him, and only employed him in all matters 
of greatest trust and secrecy. He esteemed him 
rather as a son than servant and for his wisdom 
and godliness he would converse with him in 
private more like a friend and familiar than a 
master." 

As a sign of the confidence reposed in Brewster 
by Davison, it is to be noted that when this 
youth from Scrooby had been hardly more than 
a year at Court, he was called upon to accompany 
the Secretary on his important errand to Holland 
in connection with a closer alliance between 
England and the Low Countries. One feature 
of the ceremony connected with this diplomatic 
mission was the turning over of the keys of Flush- 
ing to the English by the Dutch authorities in 
pledge of good faith and as a sign of their in- 
tention to meet the obligations of the treaty they 
had just made with Elizabeth. These keys Davi- 
son committed for safe keeping to Brewster, who 
slept the first night with them under his pillow. 



16 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

When Sir Philip Sidney arrived, a month later, to 
take command, Brewster transferred the keys to 
him. 

At Flushing Brewster witnessed the pageant 
performed upon the arrival of Leicester and 
Essex, sharing, no doubt, in the enthusiasm which 
caused the Dutch to display, as the English lords 
and warriors proceeded from Flushing to Middel- 
burg, and thence on to Rotterdam, to Delft, to 
the Hague, to Leyden and to Amsterdam, a banner 
bearing the words "Whom God Hath Joined 
Together, Let No Man Put Asunder." Davison, 
with Brewster as his aide, accompanied Leicester 
throughout this whole triumphant journey ; and 
when Davison returned to England, having been 
given a gold chain as a sign of the esteem in 
which he was held by the Dutch people, he com- 
missioned Brewster to wear the chain in England 
until they came to Court. 

Two years later, when Davison was made the 
butt of Elizabeth's hypocritical rage — because 
of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at 
Fotheringay Castle — Brewster shared his friend's 
sorrows as he had previously shared his triumphs, 
visiting him in the Tower and serving him in all 
possible ways. Davison was still in the Tower 
when Brewster left London for his home town. 
It is interesting to note that the beheading of 
Mary, Queen of Scots, in that it sent Brewster 
back to Scrooby, proved to be an important factor 
in the founding of the Pilgrim Church ! 



PURITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 17 

That a place as important to the world's de- 
velopment as Scrooby should have been lost to 
scholars for nearly two centuries is one of the 
curious happenings of history. Yet such is the 
fact. We owe to Joseph Hunter, the same 
English scholar who identified Bradford's Journal 
in London in 1855, the discovery, as it were, of 
this home for so many years of William Brewster. 
The records show that Brewster acted as post 
of Scrooby ^ from January, 1589, to September, 
1607. In April, 1608, he was fined for recusancy. 
At his house the Independent Congregation, which 
had Richard Clifton as its first teacher and John 
Robinson as his successor, was organized in 1606. 

To be sure, Brewster was still a faithful mem- 
ber of the Church of England when he began to 
offer his home as a sanctuary to those who wished 
to worship God in their own way ; but even 
thus early he was eagerly reaching out towards 
something different. We think of him as "Elder" 
Brewster, crowned with years and dignity ; the 
fact is that he was a youth of only twenty -three 
in 1589 and driven by the ardor of youth in his 
pursuit of the truth as he saw it. 

Religion was at very low ebb in this neighbor- 

* There is extant a letter, written by Sir John Stanhope, Postmaster- 
General of England, to Sir William Da\nson, dated August 22, 1590, which 
makes it clear that William Brewster's father had held this important office 
at Scrooby before he came to it, and that when the first William Brewster 
died in the summer of 1590, his son had already been performing the duties 
of the post for a year and a half. By April 1, 1594, Brewster was in full 
possession of the office; and he there continued until September 30, 1607, 
when he resigned. 



18 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

hood when Brewster carae back from London. 
Many people had not heard a sermon for years ; 
and such preaching as came to their ears was almost 
entirely supplied by clergy with slight pretensions 
to godliness. England had had what passed for 
a reformation, though, in point of fact, this had 
meant merely the substitution of the King for 
the Pope. Henry VIII was much more interested 
in the fat livings and rich sinecures which he was 
able to distribute among his followers than in the 
spiritual side of Protestantism. Yet all the while 
there was going on among the common people a 
deep longing for purity in the worship of God, 
for simplicity in the administration of ordinances 
and for a renovation of religious life. This was 
the origin of Nonconformity and Puritanism. 
Had Elizabeth and her successor, James the 
First, not driven out of the church by willfulness, 
tyranny and superstition those whose only desire 
was for more religion rather than less, we should 
perhaps never have had a Mayflower compact 
and the beginnings in America of the world's 
first real democracy. 

Brewster believed with Wicliff that it is " God's 
Word that should be preached for God's word 
is the bread of souls, the indispensable wholesome 
bread ; therefore to feed the flock in a spiritual 
sense without Bible-truth is the same thing as if 
one were to prepare for another a bodily meal 
without bread." Moreover, Brewster was con- 
vinced that the soul and the life of a preacher 



PURITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 19 

must be in tune with his words or the words could 
have no power. The parson of his heart's desire 
was such an one as Chaucer had in mind : 

a clerk 
That Christ's pure gospel would sincerely preach 
And his parishoners devoutely teach. 

And the parsons of the day were, mostly, not 
in the least of this type ! Cotton Mather asserts 
(in the *'Magnalia") that those from whom 
Brewster and Bradford separated themselves *' were 
as unacquainted with the Bible as the Jews seemed 
to have been with part of it in the days of Isaiah." 

Reformers often fail to see the logical implica- 
tions of the principles they promulgate. When 
Luther and Calvin asserted with all the power 
of their strong and sincere natures the right of 
every one to open the Bible and read it for him- 
self, they created individualism, — though nothing 
was further than that from their thoughts. And 
when they conceded to any group of Christians 
the right to set up their own ministers they es- 
tablished at the same time the sovereignty of 
the people in the political field. 

The early Puritans were not concerned with 
politics ; religion absorbed them utterly. But 
the rulers of England sensed the trend of religious 
emancipation. Mary Stuart had asked John 
Knox, "Think you that subjects, having power, 
may resist their princes?" And he had replied, 
"If princes do exceed their bounds, Madam, and 



20 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

do against that wherefore they should be obeyed, 
then I do not doubt but they may be resisted, 
even by power." ^ 

The queen fully understood that there was 
dynamite in this answer. And when the son of 
this same queen ascended the throne of the Tudors, 
he was well aware that a struggle with the English 
people was impending. In a burst of temper at 
the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 he de- 
clared that the Puritans were "aiming at a Scottish 
Presbytery, which agreeth as well with a monarchy 
as God and the devil." It was at this same con- 
ference that he swore to "harrie the Puritans out 
of the Land or else do worse" if they would not 
conform themselves. 

James had reason for this threat. The fol- 
lowers of Robert Browne had for some time 
been vehemently voicing their leader's claim ^ 
that civil magistrates, like religious functionaries, 
ought to be chosen with the consent of the people, 
and King James was not so stupid as to miss the 
implications of this teaching. But he was quite 
incapable of clear vision, because the only thing he 
was really interested in was himself. 

Edward Everett Hale, with his gift for clarify- 
ing and dramatizing history, has put into vivid 
words an incident which, though trifling in itself, 
illustrates this perfectly and is of particular 

^John Knox, "History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland." 
Book IV, 11. 14. Edinburgh, 1816. 

^Made in his "Booke which sheweth the Life and Manners of all true 
Christians." Middelburg, 1582. 



PUKITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 21 

interest to us because it brings us back once 
more to William Brewster and to Scrooby. When 
King James, aged thirty -five, traveled down from 
Scotland to London to receive the English crown 
(in 1603), he went through Sherwood Forest and 
spent the day, under good conduct, in hunting 
there. 

"In that day's sport," writes Hale, "he passed 
the manor-house of Scrooby, where William 
Brewster lived." 

Now the manor-house of Scrooby, though 
Brewster's home, belonged to the Archbishop of 
York, and because it so attracted the king that 
he thought he would like it for a royal residence 
whenever he might hunt again in Sherwood 
Forest the first letter written by the Presbyterian 
monarch to the Archbishop of York, after his 
arrival in London, was not a discussion of theology, 
but a proposal to the archbishop to sell to him 
this place for a hunting box. Yet here the Pil- 
grim Fathers were even then secretly meeting 
on the Lord's Day for their weekly worship ; and 
here they continued to meet till this Presbyterian 
king "harried them out of the Kingdom." 

At this time there was supposed to be but one 
Separatist Church in the whole of England, — 
that at Gainsborough, some twelve miles east of 
Scrooby, on the other side of Trent. The Sepa- 
ratist Church in this town had been established 
in 1602 with Robinson as minister, and it is proba- 
ble that, for some time, the Scrooby Separatists 



22 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

were of this fellowship, traveling on Sundays the 
long span — for those days — that separated the 
two towns and crossing the Trent by ferry. With 
the emigration to Amsterdam, about 1606, Sepa- 
ratism came to an end in Gainsborough and very 
little was thought of any connection between this 
place and the Mayflower men until, in June, 1896, 
Honorable T. F. Bayard, Ambassador from the 
United States to the Court of St. James, came 
down from London to lay the corner stone of a 
church just erected in the town "in memory of 
John Robinson, pastor and exile." Gainsborough, 
as a "shrine", had been lost sight of all those 
years, just as Scrooby had been. 

A short walk of three or four miles from Gains- 
borough brings us to Austerfield, which is itself 
only a mile or two from Scrooby. Austerfield 
was the home of William Bradford. His family 
had deep roots in the soil of the town. Wlien the 
subsidy of 1575 was collected, the only persons 
in Austerfield having sufficient property to be 
rated were a William Bradford and a John Hanson. 
Nine years later the son and daughter of these 
two, named William and Alice respectively, were 
married, and in due time two daughters and a 
son were born to them. This son was William 
Bradford, afterwards Governor of the Plymouth 
Colony. In the parish church may still be seen 
the entry of his baptism on March 19, 1589. 
The connection of the Governor of the Plymouth 
Colony with the church structure is much more 






':::'^:"'7 



*.. C T -t- 



f ^ -3 



Si^'W>!' 




X 







'X inic ^pv-^ni 1 



\ii 



tr, 




( npuri'ilti !. .S. Burhank, I'h/moiilh. .!/«■« 
A PAGE UF THE REGISTER IN THE ALSTERFIELD CHURCH 
The last entry shows the record of the christening of Governor William Bradford. 




a a 



Pi < 

03 » 



M 3 



PURITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 23 

clearly authenticated than with "the Bradford 
House" at the upper end of the village, which is 
said to have been his dwelling and in which, 
according to tradition, "the Pilgrims used to 
worship for fear of persecutors." 

The youth of many of these Separatist zealots 
impresses one greatly ! Bradford was only 
eighteen at the time he left his comfortable 
English home and his yeoman background to 
take up the uncertainties of life in Holland. It 
is probably because of the things he had suffered 
in Austerfield, while still so young, that he care- 
fully omitted from the pages of his "History" 
all references which would have served to "place" 
the town where, in early life, he had undergone 
bitter experiences. To be sure, " persecution " is 
too large and too definite a word for the slights 
to which these men were subjected. Those who 
chiefly made their lot unhappy at home were 
their friends and neighbors, not the Church 
authorities nor yet those of the State. The 
various High Commissions cared very little how 
this obscure band of Christians worshiped. But 
their neighbors bitterly resented the "holier than 
thou" attitude of this group who refused to 
"conform", as the Puritans had done, and who, 
instead of siding with them against the Roman 
Catholic majority in Northern England, insisted 
that a hierarchy of bishops and deans bent on 
the union of Church and State was nothing less 
than anti-Christ. 



24 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Looking back after three centuries have elapsed, 
it is not hard to understand why the great ma- 
jority of Puritans, whose aim was not to leave the 
Church but to stay in it and control it, had only 
scorn and disapproval for these extremists who 
seemed likely to jeopardize their success by forc- 
ing them into uncompromising opposition to the 
Crown. 

There is extant an old pamphlet describing a 
"tumult in Fleet Street raised by the disorderly 
preachment, pratings and prattlings of a Swarm 
of Separatists, in the course of which we are told 
that one Separatist when caught alone was 
'kickt' ... so vehemently as if they'd meant 
to beat him into a jelly. It is ambiguous whether 
they have kil'd him or no, but for a certainty 
they did knock him about as if they meant to 
pull him to pieces. I confesse," concludes our 
writer with finality, "it had been no matter if 
they had beaten the whole tribe in like manner ! '* 

The lesser men were beaten and "kickt" on 
occasions ; their leaders were frequently sent to 
the gallows. Two of Robert Browne's friends, 
convicted of circulating his books, had been thus 
disposed of in Elizabeth's time. Now the Ruler 
of England was James Stuart, who regarded Puri- 
tanism with feelings which made the earlier opposi- 
tion of Elizabeth seem mild by comparison. Hol- 
land was not far away, and William Brewster was 
already familiar with the life and habits of that 
people. Moreover, John Robinson and his con- 



PURITANS BECOME PILGRIMS 25 

gregation had already made the transition to this 
hospitable and fairly accessible country where there 
was systematic legal toleration of all persons, 
whether Catholic or Protestant, who called them- 
selves followers of Christ. Obviously, Holland 
was for the present, at least, the place for the men 
of Scrooby ! It was in going to Holland that the 
Puritans of East Anglia took the first step which 
eventually made them "Pilgrims." 



CHAPTER III 

THE FIRST MIGRATION 

It took a lot of courage and initiative for the 
men of Scrooby and Gainsborough to set out on 
their migration to the Netherlands. We must 
not minimize this fact ; for though they knew 
that they would there find religious liberty — 
William the Silent, when he became Governor of 
Holland and Zealand, had given a solemn pledge 
that exercise of the Reformed Evangelical Re- 
ligion should be maintained and that no investiga- 
tion of a man's religious belief would be permitted 
— the "Pilgrims" were of simple yeoman stock 
for the most, and the Holland of those days was 
greatly in advance of England so far as mercantile 
enterprise and the social amenities were con- 
cerned. 

Bradford reveals a distinct shrinking on the 
part of his fellow emigrants from contact with a 
civilization they did not understand and with 
which they were not altogether in sympathy. He 
says, with quite touching simplicity : 

Being thus constrained to leave their native soyle 
and couiitrie, their land and livings, and all their friends 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 27 

and familiar acquaintance, it was much, and thought 
marvellous by many. But to goe into a countrie 
they knew not (but by hearsay) where they must 
learne a new language and get their livings they knew 
not how, it being a dear place, and subjecte to the 
misseries of warr, it was by many thought an adventure 
almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a misserie 
worse than death. Espetially seeing they were not 
acquainted with trads nor traffique (by which the 
countrie doth subsiste) but had only been used to a 
plaine countrie life, and the innocente trade of hus- 
bandrey. But these things did not dismay them 
(though they did sometimes trouble them), for their 
desires were set on the ways of God, and to enjoy His 
ordinances ; but they rested on His providence and 
knew whom they had beleeved. 

Moreover, going on journey was by no means a 
simple matter in those days. Edward Leigh, in 
his "Hints for Travellers", tells us that before a 
man could get permission to travel abroad he 
needed to be especially well acquainted with his 
own country, as to the places and government. 
"If any came heretofore to the Lords of the 
Council for a license to travel : the old Lord 
Treasurer Burleigh would examine him of Eng- 
land. If he found him ignorant ; he would bid 
him stay at home, and know his own country 
first." None the less, if go a man would, having 
obtained the necessary passports — a thing by 
no means easy to accomplish, — he must "before 
his voyage make his peace with God, receive the 
Lord's Supper ; satisfy his creditors, if he be in 



28 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

debt ; pray earnestly to God to prosper him in 
his voyage, and to keep him from danger : and — 
if he be sui juris — he should make his last will, 
and wisely order all his affairs ; since many that 
go far abroad, return not home." 

Notwithstanding all these prohibitions, however, 
those in the Scrooby group who had property to 
sell sold it early in the summer of 1607, and travel- 
ing overland to Boston on the coast of Lincoln- 
shire, there waited, "a large company of them", 
for the appearance of a certain shipmaster with 
whom they had arranged to be transported with 
their goods to Holland. When this person finally 
appeared and took them on board in the boat, they 
found themselves betrayed to the Customs' officers 
and searchers of the district ! Not only were 
they deprived of their books and goods, but they 
were paraded in the market place, "a spectacle 
and wonder to the multitude which came flocking 
on all sides to behould them." 

This, of course, because of that law which for- 
bade people to emigrate. None the less, the 
confinement to which these prisoners were com- 
mitted, pending instructions from London as to 
further proceedings, was honorable if annoying. 
And when the Privy Council did send back word 
concerning them, it was to the effect that they 
should be released, — all except seven of- their 
leaders who were to be kept at Boston and turned 
over to the assizes. Of the latter Brewster was 
one, though, so far as we know, he was never tried. 




z 3 



O a 






C c. 

c .1 



w K 




>5 









< -J 



' z 



.J: >. V,,, - C^t.V-it*' ■ 



/.^.•-.— ^K. 



5 »^ 



•j^^: 




' - /• 



II I, / ]■' 




2 I 

"3 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 29 

A number of the party actually reached Holland 
in the autumn of 1607. 

Some months later the rest of the contingent 
tried again to escape from England, this time 
arranging with a Dutch captain to take them on 
board south of the Humber. It was arranged 
that the women, having sailed down the river 
Idle to the Trent, with the children and the 
baggage, were to meet at the Humber the men, 
who were walking overland. The boat-party 
arrived before the ship of the Dutch captain and, 
the sea being extremely rough, withdrew into a 
little creek to wait for a calm. When the ship- 
master and the ship which had been engaged put 
in an appearance the men were taken on board 
as planned, and all might have gone well but 
that a crowd from the countryside, who had 
heard that some one was escaping, appeared in 
the distance, so obviously looking for trouble that 
the Dutch captain was panic-stricken. Hoisting 
his sails he summarily departed with his men 
passengers only, leaving the women and children 
still stuck fast on the shoals of the creek ! Brad- 
ford, Brewster and the other leaders who had 
remained on the shore with the women were, of 
course, captured by the formidable force sent out 
after them. Once more, however, the local author- 
ities were perplexed to know what to do with these 
prisoners ; and after making a half-hearted at- 
tempt to keep them at home, they again blinked 
the fact that here were people leaving England 



30 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

without permission. So though there was again 
delay, considerable anxiety, and some temporary 
suffering incident to the migration to Holland, 
the whole party finally reached Amsterdam in 
safety, not much the worse for their experiences. 
Brewster and Bradford came among the last, 
having stayed to make sure that the weakest and 
the poorest should cross with no more discomfort 
than any of the others. 

The feelings of these English Separatists, upon 
their arrival in Holland, Bradford describes thus : 
"Being now come into the Low Countries, they 
saw many goodly and fortified cities, strongly 
walled and garded with troopes of armed men. 
Also they heard a strange and uncouth language, 
and beheld the different manners and custumes of 
the people, with their strange fashions and at- 
tires, — all so farre differing from that of their 
plaine countrie villages (wherein they were bred, 
and had so long lived), as it seemed they were 
come into a new world. But these were not the 
things they much looked on, or long tooke up 
their thoughts ; for they had other work in hand, 
and another kind of warr to wage and maintaine. 
For though they saw fair and beautiful cities, 
flouring with abundance of all sorts of wealth and 
riches, yet it was not long before they saw the 
grimme and grisly face of povertie coming upon 
them like an armed man, with whom they must 
bukle and incounter, and from whom they could 
not flye; but they were armed with faith and 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 31 

patience against him and all his encounters ; and 
though they were sometimes foyled, yet by God's 
assistance they prevailed and got the victory." 

The Scrooby Church came over, as we have 
seen, in sections. Already two other groups of 
English Nonconformists had taken up their 
abode in Amsterdam: the "anciente church", 
as Bradford styles it — that is, the body of men 
from London over whom Henry Ainsworth and 
Francis Johnson were settled; and "Mr. John 
Smith and his companie" — that is, the Gains- 
borough Church, established here in 1606. Some- 
times the three groups worshipped together but 
they did not mingle intimately in other ways. 
Citizens of London, the seafaring population of a 
provincial town like Gainsborough, and yeomen 
of Bradford's type had little of a social nature in 
common. 

Amsterdam at this time was "the Fair of all 
the Sects where all the Pedlars of Religion have 
leave to vend their Toyes." In other words, 
though it was hospitable to heretics, it was the 
home of many a Church scandal. The "anciente 
church" had a particularly checkered career be- 
cause of Francis Johnson. The first dark shadow 
on the character of this pastor came from his 
relations with his own family. In 1594, while 
still in the Clink prison, Francis Johnson had 
married a widow named Mrs. Thomasine Boys, 
whose first husband, Edward Boys, a haberdasher, 
had been a strong supporter of the Separatists. 



32 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

At Boys' house in Fleet Street had been held the 
meeting at which Johnson was arrested. Boys 
himself underwent many imprisonments and finally 
died in the Clink. 

Francis Johnson had a brother, George, and 
George, for the honor of the family, had tried hard 
to dissuade Francis from marriage with the Widow 
Boys, urging that she was much noted for pride 
and that it would give great offense to "the 
brethren." But all in vain. The most that 
George could do was to obtain a promise from the 
widow that, if she married Francis, she would 
"do as became his estate." Instead, she became 
more garish and proud in apparel than before. 
The Church was deeply offended, but left it to 
George to deal with her. He wrote to Francis, 
protesting against her gold rings, her busk, and 
her whalebones, which were so manifest that 
"many of ye saints were greened"; he begged 
that her "schowish hat might be exchanged for a 
sober taffety or felt"; and he even offered to 
raise money to provide her with more suitable 
garments should the question of expense stand 
in her way. She did reform a little ; her hat was 
not "so topishly set", and George was encouraged 
to hope for further reforms ; but when members 
of the congregation urged him on to more com- 
plaints, the pastor's wife became "very peert 
and coppet." 

Naturally Francis bitterly resented these criti- 
cisms of his bride ; her clothes were all provided 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 33 

out of her own money and apparently were per- 
fectly suitable to her rank. For the nonce, the 
brothers buried the hatchet and quite a friendly 
feeling existed between them on their voyage and 
journey to Amsterdam. But once there, George 
felt himself slighted and meanly treated by his 
brother, who did not invite him to share his large 
house ; and thinking, perhaps, that the pastor's 
wife was to blame for this neglect, his criticisms 
of her broke out with fresh venom. 

Before a church council George was called upon 
to answer for his carpings. He had charged Mrs. 
Francis, among other things, with sin in the using 
of musk and the wearing of a topish hat, and he 
was not inclined to withdraw his charges. The 
poor lady seems to have been prone to worldly 
headgear, for a "veluet hood" was also a cause 
of contention. The council, after deliberation, 
declared the hat to be *'not topish in nature", 
whereupon a lengthy discussion ensued as to 
whether a hat not topish in nature could, under 
any circumstances, be considered topish, it having 
been particularly condemned in her as the pastor's 
wife. George, who was a literal-minded person, 
asked to have this problem reduced to writing, 
and he made further accusations of flightiness 
and sloth, notably that she had "laid in bed on 
the Lord's day till 9 o'clock." He had other 
disagreements with his brother, too, concerning 
the appointment of elders and the government of 
the church. So, after vain endeavors to keep 



34 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

him quiet by bribes of office, Francis finally ex- 
communicated him publicly in 1599. In 1603 
was published an unfinished "Discourse" by 
George Johnson, which relates this whole story. 

One is not surprised that poor Mrs. Thomasine 
was overheard to say, as these quarrels proceeded, 
that she wished she were a widow again. As a 
widow she could have worn any hat sufficiently 
becoming. What is amazing is that, considering 
the perils they had gone through, and the straits 
they were in to earn a bare existence, the Church 
should have been shaken by such trivial matters as 
these. The instinct to criticize and call to ac- 
count was strong in all the transplanted churches 
of Amsterdam, however ; and the kindest explana- 
tion of George's conduct is that he had, as some 
said, "a crackt brain." The poor fellow had 
suffered enough to crack even a strong brain, 
and apparently his had always been weak. When 
his father petitioned, in 1594, for the release of 
his two sons, he declared that "the younger called 
George (in the Fleet) hath been kept sometimes 
two days and two nights together without any 
manner of sustenance ; sometimes twenty nights 
together without any bedding save a straw mat ; 
and as long without any change of linen ; and all 
this sixteen months in the most dark and un- 
wholesome rooms of the prison they could thrust 
them into ; not suffering any of his friends to come 
unto him." 

George Johnson's book shows that he was really 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 35 

conscientious and well-meaning ; but his littleness 
and obstinacy must have been irritating in the 
extreme. And when Francis found that he was 
determined to disturb not only his domestic peace, 
but the peace of the church, he had some excuse 
for the excommunication. 

Besides this "Old Clothes Controversy", there 
were many other struggles and disagreements 
between the various church groups in Amsterdam. 
So many that, when the leaders of the Scrooby 
Church took serious counsel together, in the 
summer and autumn of 1608, they decided that 
they must seek out some place where there were 
neither heretics nor English. Some place where 
they would be alone, or nearly so, in their observa- 
tion of the Ordinances of God as they hoped to 
perpetuate them. Accordingly, after staying less 
than a year in Amsterdam, they moved on to 
Ley den. 

But before we take leave of Amsterdam and its 
theological bickerings, with our Pilgrim idealists, 
let us do justice to it, as Bradford attempted to 
do, when he wrote his "History." Though he 
disapproved of much that went on in this first 
city of the Pilgrims' habitation, he came in his 
old age to see that there were some fine things 
about the churches there, — even about the church 
life of the men with whom he felt little sympa- 
thy. And for the young people of Plymouth, 
who were anxious to know how their fathers 
and grandfathers had lived while in Holland, 



36 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

he wrote of the "anciente church" in his "Dia- 
logue." 

Truly there were in them many worthy men, and 
if you had seen them in their beauty and order, as we 
have done, you would have been much affected there- 
with, we dare say. At Amsterdam, before their 
division and breach, they were about three hundred 
communicants, and they had for their teachers those 
two eminent men before named, and in our time four 
grave men for ruling Elders, and three able and godly 
men for deacons, and one ancient woman for a deaconess, 
who did them service many years though she was sixty 
years of age when she was chosen. She honoured her 
place and was an ornament to the congregation. She 
usually sat in a convenient place in the congregation, 
with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept little 
children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. 

One notes an interesting foreshadowing here of 
the tithingman of old New England. 

There were other things, too, in this Dutch 
city for the Pilgrims to take away with them for 
adaptation in the New World. The attitude 
of these people towards the old and the infirm, 
for instance, was markedly Christian and greatly 
in advance of England at this time. Fynes 
Moryson, who was in Amsterdam in 1592, records 
that there were then two Gastheusen "that is 
Houses for Strangers which were of old Monas- 
teries. One of these houses built round, was a 
Cloyster for Nunnes, wherein sixty beds at this 
time were made for poore women diseased, and 



THE FIRST MIGRATION 37 

in another chamber thereof were fifty-two beds 
made for the auxiliary soldiers of England, be- 
ing hurte or sicke, and in the third roome were 
eighty-one beds made for the hurte and sicke 
Soldiers of other Nations : to which soldiers and 
sicke women they give cleane sheets, a good diet 
and necessary clothes, with great cleanliness, and 
allow them Physitians & Surgions to cure them : 
most of the Cities in these Provinces have like 
houses." ^ 

Not only were the Dutch of those days very 
merciful to the poor and the sick, but they were 
also exceedingly kindly one to another. Moryson 
writes : 

They are a just people, and will not Cozen a Chylde, 
or a stranger, in changing a peece of gold, nor in the 
price or quality of things they buy. For equall courses 
among themselves, I will give one instance, small for 
the subject, but significant to prove theire general 
Inclination. The very wagonners if they meete 
other wagonns in the morning whyle theire horses 
are fresh, use to give them the way, but if they 
meete any in the afternoone, comming from neerer 
bating places when their horses beginne to be weary, 
they keepe their way, by a generall Custome among 
them, that they who have gone more than halfe the 
way, shall keepe it against all that have gonne less 
parte of the Jorney. And they love equality in all 
things, so they naturally kick against any great em- 
inency among them, as may be proved by many in- 
stances. . . . For they have fewe gentlemen among 

^ Fynes Moryson : "An Itinerary." Part I, p. 44. 



38 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

them in Holland . . . having of old rooted out the 
Nobility.i 

The Dutch of Amsterdam, as of the rest of the 
Netherlands, "loved equality in all things." This 
love of theirs was to have an important bearing 
on the subsequent history of the Separatists from 
Scrooby. 

*" Shakespeare's Country." P. 369. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE FORMATIVE YEARS IN LEYDEN 

Leyden was the place the Pilgrims pitched upon 
for their second home in Holland. Doubtless 
the fame of the university had something to do 
with this choice. But the favorable economic 
opportunities afforded by this flourishing city of 
fifty thousand people, given over to the manu- 
facture of cloth, likewise had a bearing on the 
matter. 

Bradford, who was nineteen when this move 
was made, calls Leyden "a fair and beautiful city 
and of a sweet situation." In many ways the town 
should have been particularly congenial to men 
from Scrooby and Austerfield. It lay on the 
dunes,^ just as their home towns did, and being a 
college city, it somewhat resembled Cambridge. 
Brewster earned his living here at first by teaching 
English "after the Latin manner", that is to say, 
grammatically, not as a vernacular, and had many 
pupils, Danes and Germans as well as Dutch. 

^Leyden: legt bey dedunen (lieth by the sand-dunes). " If a man dig two 
feet in any part of Holland he shall find water." 



40 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

But he soon abandoned teaching for printing ; the 
Elzevir Press had made Leyden a center of book 
pubHshing and as a result there was much for a 
man of letters to do. 

The Pilgrims spent about eleven years in all in 
Leyden. During the last three of these years 
they were busy arranging for their departure to 
America. Long and anxiously did they discuss 
who should go and who should stay. Finally it 
was decided to vote on the matter, the understand- 
ing being that, if a majority resolved on immediate 
departure, Pastor Robinson was to accompany 
them ; if a minority he was to remain and come 
later. The vote showed that less than half their 
number were desirous of immediate departure, so 
Robinson remained behind, it being understood, 
however, that he only awaited a summons ^ to 
join those of his flock who were to set out under 
Brewster's leadership. 

John Robinson is the outstanding figure of the 
seven years which the Separatists passed in this 
University City, for it was here that the Pilgrim 
Church, as we now speak of it, was organized with 
the pastor from Gainsborough formally elected its 
minister just as BreWster was formally elected its 
elder. A remarkable man, John Robinson ! Not 
only was he endowed with keen intellectual per- 
ceptions and wide learning, but he was a leader 
in the truest and best sense of the word, and a 

^ Before the summons came he died, early in March, 1625, being not yet 
fifty years old, and was buried in St. Peter's church, Leyden. 




THE COURT OF A DUTCH HOUSE 

From the painting by l)e Hooch in th- Nntional Gallery, London. 




JOHN ROBINSON'S HOUSE, LEYDEN, HOLLAND 

The tiihlet set in Ilit- triint of the building reads: "On this spot lived, taught and died 
John Robinson." 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 41 

graphic writer into the bargain. From the books 
he wrote we gain quite an idea of Pilgrim govern- 
ment and theology at this time. 

The worship at Leyden was wont to be held in 
the lower rooms of a rather considerable house, 
centrally located and in the very shadow of the 
university's library. Robinson and his family 
lived in the upper story of this house. The service 
used resembled that common to-day in many 
Congregational churches. First, there was an 
extemporaneous prayer by the pastor or teacher. 
Then followed the reading of two or three chapters 
of the Bible in English, with a liberal paraphrase 
of the passage by the teacher or elder. A psalm 
was then sung in English without accompaniment. 
Next came the sermon in which the pastor ex- 
pounded doctrine or explained the application of 
the Scriptures to the individual conduct of his 
congregation. Another psalm, or perhaps several 
other psalms, were next sung, after which, at 
stated times, the Lord's Supper and baptism were 
performed. Just before the service closed a col- 
lection was taken, the proceeds of which were 
devoted to the salaries of the officers and the needs 
of the poor. The Bible they used was the Geneva 
version and the translation of the psalms, that made 
by Ainsworth in prose and meter, which was pub- 
lished in London in 1612. 

Robinson's great skill in the management of 
people had plenty of scope in Leyden, for the 
members of the Church governed themselves to 



42 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

a great extent, the minister and his assistant 
acting as umpires in settling whatever disputes 
arose. 

Unhke Amsterdam, the Ley den Church tended 
to give more and more power to the congregation. 
The Separatists were naively surprised when they 
discovered that this logically implied the right of 
their own members to make up their minds indi- 
vidually concerning the widely varying interpreta- 
tions of Scripture passages made by the sects all 
about them. Gradually they came to see that, 
if they would continue to hold together^ they must 
get away, for all time, from the atmosphere of 
schism which seemed to be everywhere about 
them. 

Europe was too full of churches and conten- 
tions, of doctrines and dogmas. "The vast and 
unpeopled countries of America," as Bradford 
called them, began to beckon very alluringly to 
them. Guiana was thought of as a place to go ; 
also Virginia. But South America was held to 
be too tropical in those days for Englishmen ; and 
Virginia was in bad repute because, out of the 
migration of one hundred and eighty persons lately 
made from the Amsterdam Church to that land, 
no less than one hundred and thirty died because 
they had been "packed together like herrings" in 
a ship too small and badly victualed. The rest 
of this migration naturally returned to Holland 
full of complaints. Yet if they would attain that 
independence in ecclesiastical affairs which they 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 43 

were determined to achieve, Araerica seemed the 
only place for them. 

Bradford was keen for going, and he has thus elo- 
quently phrased the argument of the majority to 
which he belonged. 

It was answered, that all great and honourable 
actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and 
must be both enterprised and overcome with answer- 
able courages. It was granted the dangers were great, 
but not desperate ; the difficulties were many, but not 
invincible. For though their were many of them likly, 
yet they were not cartaine ; it might be sundrie of the 
things feared might never befale ; others by providente 
care & the use of good means, might in a great measure 
be prevented ; and all of them, through the help of God, 
by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or 
overcome. True it was, that such attempts were not 
to be made and undertaken without good ground & 
reason ; not rashly or lightly as many have done for 
curiositie or hope or gaine, &c. But their conditon 
was not ordinarie ; their ends were good and honour- 
able ; their calling lawf ull, & urgente ; and therfore 
they might expecte the blessing of God in their pro- 
ceding. Yea, though they should loose their lives in 
this action, yet might they have comforte in the same, 
and their endeavors would be honourable. They lived 
hear [in Leyden] but as men in exile, & in a poore con- 
dition ; and as great miseries might possibly befale 
them in this place, for ye 12, years of truce were now 
out, & ther was nothing but beating of drumes, and 
preparing for warr, the events wherof are allway 
uncertaine. The Spaniard might prove as cruell as 



44 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the salvages of America, and the famine and pestelence 
as sore hear as ther, & their Hbertie less to looke out for 
remedie. 

Already their liberty was being encroached 
upon by England as a result of Brewster's book- 
publishing activities and from the resemblance 
between his name and that of Thomas Brewer, his 
business partner. But the most impelling reason 
for going was that they would lose their identity 
if they stayed. Their young people were so 
exceedingly human in their tendency to marry 
the pretty girls of their acJopted country ! 

Glad as the men from Scrooby had been to take 
refuge in Holland, they were invincibly English 
in their ideals and their ways of life, and many of 
the Dutch customs tried them sorely. Perhaps 
the most authentic, as well as the most colorful, 
contemporary description that we have of Dutch 
life is from the pen of Fynes Moryson, and as we 
read what he has written of life in the Nether- 
lands at this period, we understand why the men 
from East Anglia felt the urge to plant a colony 
overseas. Though Moryson admired the demo- 
cratic ideals of the Dutch, he had little taste for 
their ways of life — medieval Englishman that he 
was — when they tended, as they apparently did, 
to make women the equal of men. He writes it 
down with regret that "in all meetings the number 
of women and girles doth farr overtop the number 
of men and boyes, at least five to one" and ill 
conceals his horror as he records "that as the 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 45 

women in these Provinces overtopp the men in 
number ... so they commonly rule theire 
famylyes. In the morning they give their hus- 
bandes drinking mony in their purses, who goe 
abroade to be merry where they list, leaving their 
wyves to keepe the shop and sell all thinges. 
And nothing is more frequent, then to see the 
girles to insult and domineere (with reproofes and 
nicknames) over their brothers, though elder then 
they be, and this they doe from the first use of 
speech, as if they were borne to rule over the 
malles. Yea many women goe by Sea to traffique 
at Hamburg, for marchantdize, whyle theire hus- 
bandes stay at home." ^ 

Moryson further records that in a literal, as 
well as a figurative sense, many women in Hol- 
land "wore the breeches." (One cannot picture 
Brewster and Bradford approving of this !) Be- 
cause the winter was "very sharpe in these Prov- 
inces, lying open to the Sea Northward, without 
any shelter of hills or woodes . . . some wemen 
of the best sort wore breeches, of lynnen or silke 
stuffes to keep them warme ; but commonly the 
wemmen sett with fyer under them, in passetts 
namely little pans of Coales within a case of 
woode boared through with many hole on the 
tope, which remedy spotting the body is less con- 
venient then wearing of breeches." Is it not 
interesting that, after three hundred years, women 
should now again wear "breeches" without shame 

^"Shakespeare's Europe." P. 382. 



46 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

when they find this mode of attire "convenient" ? 
The daughters of these "advanced" Dutch 
women were accorded a great deal of Hberty. 
And, apparently, knew how not to abuse their 
freedom too ! 

The wemen of these parts give great liberty to their 
daughters. Sometymes by chance they slyde on the 
yce till the gates of the Citty be locked, and the young 
men feast them at Inns in the subburbs all the night, 
or till they please to take rest. Sometymes the young 
men and virgins agree to slyde on the yce, or to be 
drawn with horses upon sledges to Cittyes 10 : 20 
or more myles distant and there feast all night, and 
this they doe without all suspition of imchastity, the 
hostesses being careful to lodge and oversee the wemen. 
In like sorte the mothers of good fame permitt theire 
daughters at home, after themselves goe to bedd, to 
sett up with young men all or most part of the night, 
banqueting and talking together, yea with leave and 
without leave to walke abroade with young men in the 
streets by night. And this they doe out of a Customed 
liberty, without prejudice to their fame.^ . . . Some 
that are betroathed make long voyages, as to the East 
Indies, before they be maryed, and in all voyages where 
the master of the shipp is a wooer, they hang a garland 
of Roses on the topp of the mayne mast. 

Perhaps the tendency of the Dutch woman, 
here noted by Moryson, to take plenty of time 
before becoming a wife was due to the protracted 
period of mourning incumbent upon her if she 

^ " Shakespeare's Europe." P. 385. C/. the data on bundling in Puritan 
Massachusetts as given in my " Social Life in Old New England." 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 47 

became a widow. Not only did she mourn long 
but custom saw to it that she mourned thoroughly. 
"Some gentlemen and others of the best sorte 
dying," writes Moryson, "had theire Armes sett 
upon theire doores for a year following, and the 
widowe so long kept her house, no man for halfe 
a yeare entering her Chamber, nor any speech 
being made to her till the yeare was ended for any 
second maryage." " Maryage ", when it did come, 
either to widow or virgin, was not infrequently 
merely a civil ceremony, our observant traveler 
further tells us. "I have seene some maryed 
without a ringe, only Joyning handes insteede 
thereof." The men of Scrooby had too lately 
been in the Church of England to approve of such 
informal mating as this. 

None the less the Dutch had their sturdy vir- 
tues, and we of New England owe them much. 
They were "most industrious and skillfull worke- 
men ", as Fynes Moryson records, "and the richest 
amongst them cause their Children to be taught 
some arte or trade, whereby they may gayne theire 
bread in the tymes of warr, or banishment, or like 
adversityes." 

Apprehension lest the morale of their young 
people as English folk should be broken down by 
continued residence in Holland was an important 
cause of the decision to emigrate to America ; but 
the occasion was the persecution of William 
Brewster, printer. 

Among the many liberties which people in 



48 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

England were obliged to go without at this period, 
but which could be measurably attained in Hol- 
land, was liberty of the press. Printing on Eng- 
lish soil was only possible in London, Edinburgh, 
and Dublin and at the University Presses of 
Oxford and Cambridge. In London, where most 
of the printing was done, it was a prison offense 
for a man to buy type and a printing press. Only 
freemen of the Company of Stationers were allowed 
to print ; and even of those freemen the number 
who could actually print the books was exceedingly 
limited, though all of them were allowed to sell 
or bind books once they had been printed. 

A master printer might have only one hand 
press, when setting up in business, and could never 
have more than two, even after he had risen high 
in the Stationers' Company. On May 9, 1615, 
there were only nineteen printing houses in Lon- 
don, possessing, in all, thirty-three hand printing 
presses. 

It was the custom for London compositors of 
this period to set up books at home and then to 
take the "formes of type" to the residence of the 
master printer to be struck off. Every night the 
hand printing press was carefully locked up to 
prevent secret printing and regularly, every week, 
searchers appointed by the Stationers' Company 
went through the house of each master printer, in 
order to see what books were at press and whether 
they had been properly licensed. Thus it was 
practically impossible to print in England any- 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 49 

thing which the king or the bishops did not wish 
to have printed. Such books were, accordingly, 
printed on the continent and smuggled into Eng- 
land. William Brewster helped to print them in 
Holland. 

Brewster had little besides his brains to invest 
in a printing plant, but there was another man in 
the Ley den group, Thomas Brewer by name, who 
had money. Thus it came about that the firm of 
Brewer and Brewster, as it might have been 
styled, gave King James cause for protracted 
worry. This firm has likewise caused the histo- 
rians considerable trouble by reason of the resem- 
blance between the names of the two men chiefly 
concerned and because the Dutch scribes were 
scandalously careless in their dealings with English 
patronymics. For years the subsequent experi- 
ences of Brewer and Brewster were confused by 
all the writers. We owe to the careful investiga- 
tions carried on at the Hague for a long period by 
H. C. Murphy and then published in the Historical 
Magazine ^ the true facts of the case. 

The object of the Pilgrim Press, as it has been 
called, was the publication in English of books 
intended for circulation in England, but prohibited 
by the Government. The edition, when ready, 
was shipped to London, to be sold there by Puritan 
and Separatist friends of the group in Holland. 
Sixteen books at most represent the entire output 
of this press during the three years 1617, 1618, 

1 Volume IV, Boston and New York, 1860. 



50 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

1619. One of these, printed by Brewster himself 
in 1619 — David Calderwood's "Perth Assembly ", 
in which was exposed King James' political chican- 
ery in attempting to compel the Scottish churches 
to conform to the Anglican establishment — 
stung the English king into hot pursuit, through 
his ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton, of the two 
men responsible for its publication. Sir Dudley 
insisted that Brewster had broken the Dutch law 
by printing and exporting this book, and he put 
the bailiffs on his trail. 

Though undoubtedly the printer chiefly re- 
sponsible, Brewster with his family was able to 
make his way safely to England, by the aid of 
friends ; and lived there from July, 1619, until 
the Mayflower sailed. His capitalist partner was 
apprehended, but escaped serious penalty largely 
because the University of Leyden, on whose books 
he was enrolled as a scholar, was induced to treat 
the case as one of university privilege. All this 
put an end, however, to the Pilgrim Press and 
made it more clear than ever that if the men from 
Scrooby were to "follow the gleam" they must 
find a new field for their life and labors. 

By the time this case had come to a head, 
Brewster, who had not been marking time in Eng- 
land, had already made good progress in the 
overtures which eventuated in the sailing of the 
Mayflower. One of his young companions, while 
he was in the service of Secretary Davison, had 
been Sir Edwin Sandys (son of the Archbishop of 



1 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 51 

York), who was afterwards treasurer of the Vir- 
ginia Company. The Virginia Company was 
known to be anxious for colonists and it was also 
understood among the Separatists that Sandys, 
like his father, had strong leanings towards 
Puritanism. Moreover the Brewsters, father and 
son, had been postmasters at Scrooby during the 
years of the elder Sandys' primacy and so were 
known through and through to the Sandys family. 
Much hope was placed in this long-standing con- 
nection. At the outset, indeed, the Separatists 
frankly set forth in their proposals their religious 
nonconformity and attempted to secure explicit 
recognition of the stand they felt obliged by con- 
science to take regarding the relation between 
Church and State. 

For a time everything went well ; King James 
even made a joke about the Pilgrims' proposed 
means of livelihood in America. Asking how 
they expected to support themselves when they 
got there, and being told by fishing, he replied 
with his ordinary asseveration, *'So God have 
my soul ! 'tis an honest trade ! it was the Apostles' 
own calling." Yet not long after this, probably 
during the summer of 1618, he suggested that the 
Separatists now proposing to emigrate have a 
conference about the matter with the Archbishop 
of Canterbury and the Bishop of London ; which 
suggestion so roused the suspicions of the leaders 
at Leyden that they decided to give up any attempt 
to secure an explicit recognition of their religious 



52 THE DAYS OF THE PH^GRIM FATHERS 

nonconformity before leaving Holland. They re- 
called quite clearly certain instances of men who, 
though permitted to leave England, were prac- 
tically banished "unless they shall be contented 
to reforme themselves", after accepting an invita- 
tion to talk matters over with the noble bishop.^ 

The exact sequence of events subsequent to the 
autumn of 1618 and during a large part of the 
winter of 1619 cannot be established by direct 
evidence. Edward Arber in his "Story of the 
Pilgrim Fathers" and Ames in his "Log of the 
Mayflower" have made painstaking attempts to 
trace every step of the Pilgrims' journey from 
Leyden to Plymouth Rock and to buttress their 
assertions with appropriate dates. But since to 
do this definitively is practically impossible at 
this distance of time, one must be content here 
with generalizations, taking comfort in the fact 
that the very writers who are most categorical in 
the matter of dates are certain to make the most 
mistakes. Roland G. Usher, who has freshly 
reviewed all the available material and has given 
us in his book, "The Pilgrims and Their History", 
a work at once scholarly, compact, and readable, 
declares that the character of existing material 
and the actual lack of evidence makes it abso- 
lutely impossible to be too sure about all these 
dates and data. 

What we do know is that when the news got 
around that this group of Separatists in Holland 

^ Privy Council Register, March 25, 1597. 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 53 

were looking for capital with which to support a 
venture in America a number of different offers 
of help were made to them. Many of these fell 
by the way after the manner of such offers ; but 
in June, 1619, William Brewster and Robert Cush- 
man were sent to London with instructions "to 
end with the Virginia Company as well as they 
could", and a patent was actually granted at this 
time authorizing the planting of a colony. Weary 
months of waiting again followed, and when the 
proposal submitted by the Dutch capitalists that 
they should settle in the Dutch -American colony, 
then called the New Netherlands, now New York, 
had to be finally rejected because the Dutch would 
not guarantee to protect them against external 
foes, despondency very nearly overtook them all. 
In the spring of 1620, however, a certain John 
Weston crossed from England to Leyden to an- 
nounce that some seventy "Adventurers" were 
prepared to subscribe the capital required for the 
ships and other necessaries of the voyage. On 
harsh terms, to be sure ! But terms which were 
eventually accepted. Thus it was finally agreed : 

(1) that every Adventurer who contributed £10 
of capital should receive one share in the enter- 
prise ; 

(2) that every emigrant of sixteen years of age 
and over who went in person to the new colony 
should be credited with a £10 share ; 

(3) that for seven years the whole product of 
the labor of the colony should be divided among 



54 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the shareholders in proportion to the number of 
their shares ; 

(4) that at the end of the seven years there 
should be a general division among the share- 
holders of all the property at that time in 
possession. 

Obviously these were terms pretty close to 
actual serfdom. Yet they were the terms made, 
the terms under which the capital was subscribed. 
The precise sum raised in 1620 is not clear, but 
four years later, the money actually expended 
amounted to about seven thousand pounds. It 
is therefore plain that, under the terms of the 
compact, the ninety-two adult passengers who 
eventually crossed the Atlantic can have looked 
to receive very little over one-eightieth part of 
the product of their toil. 

It was with the money subscribed by the 
London Adventurers on the harsh terms just 
quoted that the Speedwell, a ship of sixty tons, 
was bought and sent to Delftshaven, Holland, to 
convey the Pilgrims to the New World by way of 
Southampton. At the English city the Mayflower, 
a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, had been 
chartered to meet them with provisions and stores. 
Then, with the Speedwell, the Mayflower, it was 
arranged, was to fare forth on the long passage 
across the Atlantic. 

The last day which the Separatists passed at 
Leyden was spent at Robinson's house and given 
over to humiliation, fasting, and prayer. Doubt- 




o; a b 



"7. ^ 




■UUiriiiii! 





I'LVMOITH K(»( K 




THE STONK WHICH MARKS THE PLACE AT PLYMOUTH. ENGLAND. 

WHERE THE MWELOWER PASSENGERS TRANSFERRED 1 ROM IHL 

SPEEDWELL. EN ROUTE TO THE NEW WORLD 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 55 

less there was also psalm-singing, a long sermon, 
and a great deal of discussion. Probably there 
was some sort of farewell feast, too, as the little 
company set forth, on July 21, 1620, for Delfts- 
haven, passing down the Vliet on canal boats, a 
journey of about twenty-four miles. With a 
voyage across the Atlantic the commonplace it 
has come to be in our day it was hard, five years 
ago, to understand the misgivings that must have 
well-nigh overwhelmed these men and women as 
they made ready for their voyage westward. But 
with the terrors of the deep as Americans have 
known them during the late war in mind, it is not 
so hard to visualize the courage required to under- 
take this journey. 

Delft shaven is now a part of Rotterdam, and as 
one enters or leaves the principal shipping city of 
Holland on the steamers of the Dutch or Holland- 
America Line, one sees on each side splendid build- 
ings of masonry, brick, or iron. Nevertheless the 
chief canal, streets, and older quays were much the 
same three hundred years ago as now; very ap- 
propriately the tree-lined avenue with a southern 
exposure which fronts the main channel of the 
Maas River has been called, since July, 1892, 
"Pelgrim Kade", that is to say. Pilgrim Avenue 
or Quay. 

Leyden Street in the chief town of the Pilgrims, 
on the other hand, bears witness to the affection 
with which memories of the formative years passed 
by the exiles in the University City of Holland 



56 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

have been cherished on the American side of the 
Atlantic. 

The solemn injunctions of Pastor Robinson, as 
the little company took its leave, have come down 
to us accurately through the printed page, but the 
pictures which most of us associate with this 
historic occasion are, of course, utterly untrust- 
worthy. "He charged us," Winslow records, 
"before God and His blessed Angels to follow 
himself no further than he followed Christ ; and 
if God should reveal anything to us by any other 
instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it as 
ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry. 
For he was very confident the Lord had more 
truth and light yet to break forth out of His Holy 
Word." 

The affection in which Robinson was held by all 
shines through Bradford's description of the scene 
as they took their leave : "Truly doleful was the 
sight of that sad and mournful parting, to see 
what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound among 
them. . . . Yet comfortable and sweet it was to 
see such lively and true expressions of dear and 
unfeigned love. But the tide, which stays for no 
man calling them away that were thus loath to 
depart, their reverend Pastor falling down on his 
knees . . . commended them with most fervent 
prayers to the Lord and His blessing. And then 
with mutual embraces and many tears they took 
their leaves one of another, which proved to be 
the last leave to many of them." 



THE FORMATIVE YEARS 57 

Four days of fair wind carried them to South- 
ampton where they found the Mayflower, which 
had already been waiting for them a week. Also 
waiting was John Weston and the articles as 
finally amended, ready now for the signatures of 
the principal members just arrived from Ley den. 
Weston was pretty exigent in regard to these 
signatures, and the Pilgrims showed their exceed- 
ing humanity by being equally obstinate about 
agreeing to the amendments. Finally, becoming 
very angry, Weston told them "to look to stand 
on their own legs" and left for London without 
paying the port dues of nearly £100 owing on the 
Mayflower. Fearful lest they become embroiled 
with the authorities by reason of this bill, the 
Pilgrims sold some firkins of their precious butter 
and so raised the money to clear port. When, on 
August 5, they did set sail, the captain of the 
Speedwell declared that his ship was leaking, and 
there was another delay while the leak was mended 
at Dartmouth. Again they made off, but again 
the Speedwell's captain asserted that his vessel 
was not seaworthy. So, putting into Plymouth, 
those who in spite of all these harassing delays 
were still of good courage transferred to the May- 
flower. Though overcrowded and hence very 
uncomfortable, that ship sailed alone, September 
6, 1620, for the New World. All told there were 
one hundred and two passengers on board. 

Rather curiously, only two of these passengers, 
William Brewster and William Bradford, whom an 



58 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

English writer has called the Aaron and Moses 
of the New England enterprise, can be traced from 
Scrooby and Austerfield in England to Ley den, 
and thence to Plymouth. And, including chil- 
dren, only thirty-three others of the Leyden con- 
gregation sailed ; the remaining sixty-seven of the 
company joined the group just as it was about to 
leave England. Yet the Leyden influence was so 
strong as to outweigh the English numerical pre- 
ponderance. Plymouth life — American life — 
would never have been what it is had there not 
intervened those seven formative years in the city 
on the sand dunes of Holland. 



CHAPTER V 

THE ENGLAND FROM WHICH THEY FLED 

The mind of the English people of those days 
teemed with thoughts and excitements of which 
we in our time can have no just conception. Our 
understanding of what the Pilgrims faced and 
felt as they left Europe behind them must depend 
therefore upon the force of our imagination hardly 
less than on the extent of our reading. 

The great questions, both of politics and reli- 
gion, which then agitated society were comparative 
novelties. The wonders of the New World and of 
the whole southern hemisphere were discoveries of 
yesterday. National questions were debated with 
a degree of passionateness and earnestness such 
as we of the twentieth century have only lately 
felt ; while distant regions loomed before the 
fancies of men in alliance with everything shad- 
owy, strange, and mysterious. 

In the early seventeenth century, the Old World 
seemed to be waking at the side of thoughtful 
Englishmen as from the sleep of ages, and a new 
world rose to their view, presenting treasures 
which seemed to be inexhaustible. The wonder 



60 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

of to-day was succeeded by the greater wonder of 
to-morrow, and revelations appeared to have no 
end. At the same time, to very many, their 
native land had become as a house of bondage, 
and the waters of the Atlantic a stream which 
separated them from their promised home. So if 
we are to understand the Pilgrims in even the 
most superficial way, we must try hard to put 
ourselves back three hundred years. One way to 
do this is to consider the conditions of life in the 
England from which they fled. 

Not only was Law, as we of English traditions 
understand it, struggling still for existence, but 
everything and everybody was still subordinate 
to the royal pleasure. Moreover, England did 
not then have even a weekly — not to mention a 
daily — newspaper. The former did not come into 
existence for twenty-two years more, the latter 
for one hundred and nine years. Twenty-eight 
years had still to elapse before William Harvey 
should publish his discovery of the circulation of 
the blood ; sixty-six years before Newton, sitting 
in his garden, should start the train of thought 
which led to the recognition of the Law of Gravi- 
tation. Not until one hundred and sixty years 
later was there a street light in London ; and, 
perhaps most important of all, two hundred and 
forty years had still to roll by before letters could 
be prepaid by stamp, so ushering in the era of 
cheap postage. 

Before the reign of Henry the Eighth the only 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 61 

letters of which any record exists — letters to and 
from the Court and on affairs of State — were 
sent by couriers employed for the particular pur- 
pose who were styled "Nuncii" and "Cursores." 
These messengers appear to have formed an 
important branch of the royal establishment. 
Their titles remind us of the officials who bring 
messages in some of Shakespeare's historical plays. 
Sir Brian Tuke, as Master of the Posts, to whom 
was given the task of setting up posts "in al places 
most expedient", wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 
1533, "Sir, it may like you to understand the 
Kinges Grace hathe now no ordinary postes nor 
of many days hathe had, but betwene London and 
Calais . . . and sens October last, the postes 
northewarde. . . . For, Sir, ye knowe well, that, 
except the hakney horses bitwene Gravesende and 
Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in 
post for men in this realme as is in the accustumed 
places of France and other parties." ^ 

The original function of Sir Brian Tuke was to 
see that, where no post existed, the royal couriers 
were not kept waiting for horses. These horses 
were provided by the townships, and to keep the 
townships up to their duty was one of Sir Brian's 
privileges. At Leicester, for instance, the mem- 
bers of the Corporation bound themselves under 
penalty to keep four post horses in constant 
readiness for their sovereigns' use and, when such 
an equipment was not at hand, the magistrates 

^ Herbert Joyce : "History of the Post OflSce," 



62 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and constables were expected to seize horses 
wherever they could be found. Until long after 
the reign of Henry the Eighth this close connection 
between the post and the sovereign continued. 
And as late as 1621 all the posts of the kingdom, 
which even then were only four in number, started 
from the Court. 

Elizabeth standardized the mail deliveries of 
England. Every post was to keep and have con- 
stantly ready, she enacted, two horses at least 
with suitable "furniture." He was to have at 
least two bags of leather well lined with baize or 
cotton, and a horn to blow "as oft as he meets 
company" or four times in every mile. After 
receiving a packet he was to start off with it within 
fifteen minutes and to ride in summer at the rate 
of seven miles an hour and in winter at the rate 
of five. The packets thus treated were, however, 
only those which had to do with the queen's 
affairs or the affairs of the State. All others were 
"to passe as by letters"; that is, they might be 
taken along by the post but he was not to go for 
the purpose of taking them. This quite casual 
postal service was, however, adequate for the time, 
as writing during the sixteenth century was an 
accomplishment possessed by comparatively few. 

The secondary function of the posts was to 
facilitate traveling, and in this direction the 
service extended with considerable rapidity. So 
much so that, when James the First came to the 
throne, he had to make strict regulations to check 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 63 

the abuse of traveling at the sovereign's charge 
and for the sovereign's use. Many people, he 
discovered, had been using the service of the posts 
while traveling on their own affairs. James also 
made it more difficult than it had been heretofore 
to convey letters of a private nature. In fact it 
grew to be so difficult for travelers to travel and 
for letters to be conveyed that the posts came to 
be regarded and were largely employed "as an 
instrument of police !" ^ 

A postmaster on the great roads was in those 
days required to keep relays of horses for forward- 
ing the letters, and to furnish rest and refreshment 
for travelers as well as actually to aid, sometimes, 
in the matter of accomplishing the journey. It 
was an office of high responsibility and had noth- 
ing whatever to do with the conveyance of private 
letters. These were not conveyed by the public 
posts till some years afterward. Sir Timothy 
Hutton on a journey to and from London in 1605 
paid the post at Scrooby, probably Brewster, "for 
post-chaise and guide to Tuxford 10s and for 
candle, supper and breakfast, 7s-10d, so that he 
slept under Brewster's roof." On his return he 
paid 8s to the post at Scrooby for conveying him 
to Doncaster, then reckoned seven miles, and 2s 
for "burnt sack, bread, beer, and sugar to wine, 
and 3d to the ostler." 

Yet since most of the people could neither read 
nor write, means of conveying letters, though 

^ Joyce, p. 7. 



64 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

interesting, were scarcely vital. Up to the seven- 
teenth century the common people, generally, 
were quite illiterate, but this was more true of 
church folk than of Dissenters. The Reforma- 
tion was of immense importance in the matter of 
advancing education, for every parent spiritually 
stimulated thereby desired to read the Bible for 
himself and to teach his children to read it also. 

''Theology rules there," said Grotius, speaking 
of England two years after Elizabeth's death. In 
this observation there was much truth. The in- 
vention of printing and the publication in the 
vernacular tongue of the sacred Scriptures worked 
a complete moral change in Europe, and the 
English then became, in the pregnant words of 
John Richard Green, " the people of a book and 
that book the Bible. . . . The whole moral effect 
which is produced nowadays by the religious news- 
paper, the tract, the essay, the lecture, the mis- 
sionary report, the sermon, was then produced by 
the Bible alone, and its effect in this way, however 
dispassionately we examine it, was amazing. . . . 
A new moral and religious impulse spread through 
every class." 

For children whose parents could not personally 
instruct them, a rudimentary school was often 
kept in the little room over the church porch. 
Frequently, too, a weaver or a tailor would have 
pupils about him while at work. The book used 
by these groping scholars — after they had learned 
their alphabet from a hornbook — would be Ed- 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 65 

mund Coote's "The English Schoolmaster." Here, 
following columned pages given over to ab, eb, ib, 
etc. we find the following edifying bit of text: 

"Boy, go thy way to the top of the hill and get 
me home the bay nag. Fill him well, and see 
he be fat, and I will rid me of him for he will be 
but dull as his dam ; if a man bid well for him I 
will tell him of it (his fulness) ; if not, I do but 
rob him: and so God will vex me, and may let 
me go to hell, if I get but a jaw-bone of him ill." 

Eight such chapters of constantly increasing 
difficulty, from the standpoint of the beginner at 
reading, make up the first book of this exemplary 
volume. 

Obviously John Brinsley had a good case, when, 
writing in 1622 of the grammar schools, which 
should have been of so much better quality than 
those using Coote's textbooks, he voiced thus the 
lamentations of many parents : 

"My Sonne hath been under you six or seven 
years, and yet is not able so much as to reade 
English well ; much less to construe or understand 
a piece of Latin, or to write true Latin or to speak 
in Latin in any tolerable sort. . . . Another shall 
complaine ; my sonne comes on never a whit in 
his writing. Besides that his hand is such that it 
can hardly be read ; he also writes so false English 
that he is neither fit for trade, nor any employ- 
ment wherein to use his pen." 

In another of his books Brinsley blames play for 
these deficiencies of scholarship. "Schooles, gen- 



66 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

erally," he says, "do not take more hinderance 
by any one thing, than by over often leave to 
play. Experience teacheth, that this draweth 
their mindes utterly away from their bookes, that 
they cannot take paines, for longing after play. " ^ 

The grammar school was, of course, the "free" 
school of the period. But these schools were 
"free" only in the sense that they were open 
without charge, or at small charge, to boys of a 
restricted neighborhood or to promising lads 
selected by some one in the upper classes who 
would subsequently send them to college. Lads 
proceeded to Cambridge or Oxford from these 
"free grammar schools" at the age of fourteen or 
fifteen. Of schools of this type two hundred 
fifty -two are traceable to a period before 1600 ; 
but Roger Ascham, who was educated in one of 
them, is our authority for believing that the 
tongue-and-lip teaching inculcated by them in his 
time, at least, "never ascended up to the brain 
and head and therefore was sone spitte out of the 
mouth againe." 

Children were wont to enter these "free" 
schools at the age of about seven or eight, Brinsley 
tells us — and as he himself was, in 1601 and for 
many years after, master of such a school at 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, we could not find a better 
authority — and had to report for work at six 
o'clock in the morning. At nine o'clock there 
came a quarter of an hour's intermission ; and the 

^ John Brinsley : "The Grammar School." London, 1627. 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 67 

forenoon session ended at eleven. Afternoon 
school was from one to half -past five with a short 
recess at three. The day's work closed with the 
reading of "a peece of a Chapter", the singing of 
*'two staves of a Psalme" and prayer. 

Even for the fortunate lads who, having been 
to grammar school, proceeded thence to college, 
there was not much really in the way of what we 
to-day should regard as education. Mathematics, 
Logic, and Rhetoric were the three college studies, 
the "Trivium", which qualified for the bachelor's 
degree. Then to become a master of arts a youth 
studied for three years more the *'Quadrivium ", 
— Philosophy, Astronomy, Perspective, and Greek. 
Theology also received much attention, and Arith- 
metic was likewise recognized as an acquirement to 
be encouraged. That very little, however, was 
really done with the last-named study may be 
seen from the fact that Pepys (who before gradu- 
ating an M.A. at Magdalen, Cambridge, had been 
at school both in Huntington and in London) 
records as late as 1662 : 

"By & by comes Mr. Cooper ... of whom I 
intend to learn mathematiques, . . . After an 
houre's being with him at arithmetique (my first 
attempt being to learn the multiplication-table) ; 
then we parted till tomorrow." And at this time 
Mr. Pepys had been for some years in the public 



service 



Only an overwhelming desire to be able to read 
the Scriptures could have supplied sufficient in- 



68 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

centive, under such difficulties, to learn to read at 
all. There were almost no books of general 
interest. Indeed most of the writers commonly- 
accounted Elizabethan could not possibly have 
been in the average English library at the time 
the Mayflower sailed for the New World. In 
prose Bacon, Burton, Thomas Fuller, Milton, most 
of Raleigh, Jeremy Taylor, and Izaak Walton 
would be lacking, as in poetry would be that 
gifted three, Milton, Herbert, and Vaughan, three 
Beaumont s, three Fletchers, most of Drayton, 
Donne, Carew, George Sandys, Ben Jonson, — 
and the greater part of Shakespeare himself. 
Brewster's library of three hundred ninety-three 
volumes, which, carefully catalogued, long remained 
the literary treasure-house of the Old Colony, 
contained of historical works twenty -four; of 
philosophical six ; of poetical fourteen ; miscel- 
laneous fifty -four. And Brewster might, of course, 
be called a man of literary tastes by reason of 
his temperament and his Cambridge training. 

Books being few and costly, and newspapers and 
magazines having not yet come into general circu- 
lation,^ it was natural that people should have 
grown into the habit of spending the larger part 
of their leisure on games and kindred amusements. 
For indoor sports there were riddles, jests and 
merry tales, cards, dice, draughts, shuttlecock, 

^ The first proper newspaper in English appeared in 1622 (Enc. Brit.)t 
though pamphlets of news began to appear soon after the coming in of the 
seventeenth century. Burton :" Anatomy of Melancholy." 1614. 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 69 

shovelboard (then called shove-groat) and, in the 
higher walks of life, chess. Dancing, too, of 
course; and out-of-doors wrestling, quarterstaff, 
pitching the bar, tilting at the ring, football, 
hurling, barley break,^ running at quintain,^ and 
shooting at butts, with fishing, hawking, and 
hunting. Archery was required by royal order 
with careful specifications as to the size and 
quality of the implements. In the realm of what 
we should call entertainment, wandering com- 
panies of minstrels and harpers were common, 
and rude plays were acted before the public. In 
London the gallants of the time strolled up and 
down from 3 to 6 p.m. in Paul's Walk, the middle 
aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and bull and bear 
baiting, masques and the theater filled out other 
hours which threatened to hang heavy on their 
hands. 

For the common people the great days of the 
Church brightened the year. At Christmas, New 
Year's, May Day, Twelfth Day, Plough Monday 
(the first Monday after Epiphany) , Shrovetide (the 
period between Ash Wednesday and the preceding 
Saturday evening), Easter, Whitsuntide, Candle- 
mas Day, Martinmas and All Hallow's Eve — to 
name only the outstanding festivities — .there was 

^ This game was played by six people, coupled by lot, on a ground with 
three compartments, the middle one being named "hell." The middle 
couple, who could not break hands, had to catch the others, who were 
allowed to do so, those caught taking the place of the catchers. 

2 In this game a bar was balanced on a pivot with a broad board at one 
end and a bag of sand at the other. The play was to hit the board when 
riding by and escape the bag as it was thrown around suddenly. 



70 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

merriment which often went so far and consumed 
so much time as to tend to grave corruption of 
manners. Thus PhiHp Stubbes in 1583 said of 
Christmas : 

"Who is ignorant that more mischief e is [at] 
that time committed than in all the yeere besides ? 
What masking and mumming whereby robberie, 
whordome, murther and what not is committed ! 
What dicing and carding, what eating and drink- 
ing, what banqueting and feasting is than [then] 
used more than in all the yeere besydes ! to the 
great dishonour of God and impoverishing of the 
realme." 

W^e have here, of course, the Puritan protest. 
And it was because of protests like unto this one 
that the Puritans came to be hated. Life in 
England was becoming increasingly drab, by 
reason of economic pressure ; and on this very 
account the people clung the more tenaciously to 
the "merrie" diversions of an earlier time. 

Macaulay, in his "Essay on Milton", voices, on 
the plane of the spiritual, the widespread resent- 
ment at the "holier than thou" frame of mind 
which was so often confused with the Puritan 
idea : 

"Puritans were men whose minds had devised 
a peculiar character from the daily contemplation 
of superior beings and eternal interests. Not 
content with acknowledging, in general terms, an 
overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed 
every event to the will of the Great Being, for 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 71 

whose power nothing was too vast, for whose 
inspection nothing was too minute. To know 
him, to serve him, to enjoy him was to them the 
great end of existence. They rejected with con- 
tempt the ceremonious homage which other sects 
substituted for the pure worship of the soul. 
Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the 
Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to 
gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to 
commune with him face to face. Thence origi- 
nated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. 
The difference between the greatest and meanest 
of mankind seemed to vanish when compared 
with the boundless interval which separated the 
whole race from him on whom their own eyes 
were constantly fixed. They recognized no title 
to superiority but his favor ; and confident of that 
favor they despised all the accomplishments and 
all the dignities of the world." 

The Puritans, being only the Low Church 
party in the Church of England and not dissent- 
ers — Separatists — from the established Church 
like the Pilgrims, would willingly have stopped 
short of throwing all the games overboard, how- 
ever. They would have been quite content to 
reform their abuses. (So we shall find a distinct 
difference in the ways of keeping Christmas 
between the settlements at Plymouth and at 
Massachusetts Bay.) For by the time of the 
Pilgrim exodus, England had for some years 
ceased to be notably "merrie." Save where a 



72 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

mockery of vitality had been preserved to the old 
games and pageants by compulsion of the town 
authorities, they had died out because of the 
increased number of depressed workers. The 
struggle to earn a livelihood, quite as much as 
the Reformation, was responsible for the increased 
soberness of life to be noted in most of the towns 
at this time. 

The crafts were strong, and the Guild Hall, 
which was the center of the work life of the day, 
stood side by side in the market place with the 
parish church. These two institutions summed up 
the multitudinous activities of the common life, 
the church predominating in importance. For the 
church was the fortress of the borough against its 
enemies, the place of safety to which in the hour 
of danger arms might be taken for storage in the 
steeple, and corn, wool, or other precious goods for 
protection in the body of the sanctuary.^ A 
sentence of excommunication hung over all who 
should violate this sacred protection. 

From the twelfth century, wool, the one great 
export of England and the one great source of 
wealth, looms large in history. In the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries there had been an elabo- 
rate system for the protection of the raw wool 
trade ; but by 1546 England's chief business had 
come to be exporting cloth. 

The fall of Calais, in 1558, was an important 
contributing factor in the attention which England, 

1 Mrs. J. R. Green : "Town Life in the Fifteenth Century." 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 73 

by the Pilgrims' time, was giving to the business of 
manufacturing. Manchester had just created a 
market for its "coatings" or cottons; Norwich 
and Sandwich had received a considerable immi- 
gration of makers of baize, serges, bombazines, and 
beaver hats ; Coventry had become famous for 
its "true blue" woolens, and other towns were 
putting out attractive green cloths. Since York- 
shire had plenty of English wool, the Flemings 
were invited there to work it up, while in London, 
this clever "assisted immigration" made felt hats ; 
at Bow, they worked in the dyeing industries ; at 
Wandsworth wrought in brass; and at Fulham 
and Mortlake fabricated arras and tapestry. As 
yet there were no factories, however, all work 
being done at home and no man being allowed by 
statute to have more than two looms. 

It was about this time, too, that Yarmouth 
workers learned from the Dutch, who came to 
dwell among them, how to cure herrings ; and 
lead and tin, having been melted in Cornwall, 
appeared in England on the roofs of the churches 
and on occasional mansions. 

William Harrison, whose books about the cus- 
toms and manners of his time ^ are among the 
most fascinating sources of information that we 
have, says that old men in his village "noted three 
things to be marvelously altred in England within 
their sound remembrance." One was the number 
of chimneys; in their youth not more than two 

^ Harrison was appointed Canon of Windsor in 1586. 



74 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

or three could be seen smoking in most country 
towns. The second was sleeping accommodations. 
Instead of lying, at best, upon a flock-bed stuffed 
with coarse wool, with a sack of chaff for a bolster, 
the farmer now had feather beds, sheets, and 
pillows, — 'pillows which had formerly been ac- 
counted such luxuries that they were used only 
by women bringing children into the world. The 
third change was in the realm of table furni- 
ture. Where the fathers had eaten with wooden 
platters and spoons, their sons, says Harrison, 
would have a fair array of pewter with a full 
dozen of spoons. 

The increase in the number of villages referred 
to by Harrison was, of course, the most important 
of these three changes. Previously the land out- 
side the towns had been largely unenclosed, while 
at intervals of from two to four miles would be the 
parish church and a few cottages. Not far away 
would commonly be the manor house of the squire 
who probably owned the greater part of the land 
within sight. Though the rooms of this mansion 
would often be spacious and the walls might 
even be wainscoted with native oak or hung with 
tapestry, the dwelling would ordinarily be of two 
stories only, the upper story overhanging the 
lower. The construction would be of brick or 
stone, though it might be framed of strong timbers, 
studded and filled in with stones and clay. Glass, 
however, was rapidly taldng the place in the win- 
dows of the lattice work pieced out with horn or 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 75 

oiled paper through which the hght had formerly 
entered. 

The domestic offices and farm buildings of the 
squire's establishment would be near his home but 
not necessarily under the same roof. In the 
better residences the home included a large hall 
and a chapel. The dv/elling of the yeoman com- 
monly had several rooms and was roofed with 
reeds. Laborers' cottages seldom included more 
than two rooms and were constructed of clay walls 
upon a timber frame. 

Nearly every home had a garden, though the 
common people were only just beginning to learn 
the value of vegetables as cheap and wholesome 
food. The potatoes brought to England in 
Raleigh's vessels had been received with much 
less enthusiasm than the tobacco similarly intro- 
duced. Harrison, however, enumerates melons, 
pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers, radishes, parsnips, 
carrots, cabbages, and all kinds of salad herbs as 
within the reach of all classes. Orchards on many 
an humble place yielded apples, pears, plums, 
walnuts and filberts, while the grounds of the 
gentry often produced, besides, cherries, apricots, 
peaches, grapes, almonds and figs. 

In Elizabeth's time the fondness of the upper 
classes for vegetables amounted almost to a pas- 
sion and caused them to welcome with enthusiasm 
any addition to their supply of roots and esculent 
greens. The alacrity with which they adopted 
the American tuber is a case in point. Ten years 



76 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

after Raleigh's adventurers brought the first 
potatoes from Virginia this vegetable was being 
commonly grown and enthusiastically eaten in 
England. And whereas in Henry's time we hear 
much of a dearth of vegetables, in Elizabeth's day 
tulip roots (dressed with sugar), radishes, pump- 
kins, artichokes, fourteen kinds of colewort "in- 
cluding the colie-flore or coleflore, and the great 
ordinarie cabbage ", cucumbers, carrots, parsnips, 
turnips, beet, asparagus, and onions were all 
greatly used, as were also lettuce, spinach, cresses, 
and many other esculent leaves good for salads. 
There was always a question whether oil or butter 
should be employed in dressing these vegetables, 
but English taste inclined to butter. The Eliza- 
bethan housekeeper who grudged butter to the 
parsnips she set before her guests gained an ill 
name. "Apologies," says the adage of that 
period, "wont butter parsnips." Potatoes were 
also profusely dressed with butter. Cucumbers 
were thought by many to be decidedly indigestible, 
however dressed, this being also true of mush- 
rooms, against which Edmund Gayton wrote : 

Pepper and oyl and salt, nay all cook's art, 

Can no way wholesomeness to them impart. 

What Dr. Butler said of the cucumber, 

Of these ground-bucklers we the same aver, 

Dress them with care, then to the dung-hill throw 'um, 

A hog wont touch 'um if he rightly knowe 'um ! 

Then, as now, the English generally preferred 
flesh or fish to vegetables for steady diet. And 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 77 

they cared little for the oysters and clams so 
abundant in the land of their adoption. One of 
the greatest difficulties the Pilgrims had to face 
was that of learning to like to eat the things easily 
obtainable in New England. Though in Harri- 
son's time an Englishman could eat whatever he 
could afford to buy, "except it be upon those dales 
whereon eating of flesh is especially forbidden by 
the lawes of the realme, which order is taken 
onelie to the end our numbers of cattell may be 
the better increased, & that aboundance of fish 
which the sea yieldeth, more generallie received ", 
it is recorded that white meat, milk, butter, and 
cheese, though very dear, were eaten only by the 
poor, the rich eating brown meat, fish and fowl, 
wild and tame. 

Which brings us, of course, to the subject of 
class distinctions and their attendant differentia- 
tions in ways of living. The English people at 
this time were divided horizontally into four 
ranks : gentlemen, citizens, yeomen, and laborers. 
The citizen class, made up of freemen of cities 
competent to vote for and sit in the lower house 
of Parliament, included also some conspicuously 
successful merchants. In the fifteenth century 
this class had been particularly numerous and 
powerful, but by the time of the Pilgrim exodus 
had greatly declined. The same was true of the 
yeomen, — in the third rank. Most of these were 
farmers and freeborn, men who from their own land 
had an annual income of not less than six pounds. 



78 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

These are the men usually spoken of in early New 
England history as "Goodman" this or that. 

Petty merchants who had no free land, hand- 
workers, poor husbandmen and day laborers were 
in the fourth class, while below them were the 
unemployed and the unemployable, the criminals 
and the rogues bred by the wars. It is interesting 
to note that the writers of the time clearly recog- 
nized the social disintegration almost certain to 
follow war. "For it is the custome of the more 
idle sort," we read, "having once served, or but 
seen the other side of the sea under color of service, 
to shake hands with labour forever, thinking it a 
disgrace for himselfe to return unto his former 
trade." 

Too great an increase in population was held 
by many statesmen to be responsible for the ap- 
palling number of the unemployed and of those 
who could not support themselves. But Harrison 
sturdily refutes their conclusions. He writes : 

Some also doo grudge at the great increase of people 
in these daies, thinking a necessairre brood of cattell 
farre better than a superfluous augmentation of man- 
kind. I can liken such men best of all unto the pope 
and the devil, who practice the hinderance of the 
furniture of the number elect to their uttermost, 
to the end the authoritie of the one upon earth, the 
deferring of the locking up of the other in everlasting 
chaines, and the great gaines of the first, may continue 
and indure the longer. But if it should come to pass 
that any forren invasion should be made, which, the 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 79 

Lord God forbid for his mercies sake ! — then should 
these men find that a wall of men is farre better than 
stackes of corne and bags of monie, and eomplaine of 
the want when it is too late to seeke remedie.^ 

Sir Frederic Eden ascribes the development 
of the indigent poor as a distinct class in England 
which had to be supported and which then easily 
became criminal largely to the beginnings of the 
growth of commerce and manufacture, which dates 
from the stimulation of wool production and its 
attendant consolidation of petty farms into large 
sheep-raising tracts. One shepherd could now 
take the place of a dozen men who had previously 
earned a living by working on the land. The 
dispossessed ones, deprived of all means of respect- 
able self-maintenance, inevitably became vaga- 
bonds ; and just as inevitably broke the laws of 
the land. 

Parliament first attempted in 1536 to cope with 
the problem of poverty by enacting that voluntary 
alms should be collected in each parish for the 
purpose of relieving the impotent poor. And the 
famous Poor Law of Elizabeth provided in 1601 
for the erection and maintenance of poorhouses 
by parishes,^ especially commending that those 
unable to work should be relieved therein. This 

1 Harrison's "Description of England." Pp. 215-216. Furnivall's Edi- 
tion. 

2 The first poorhouse in England was erected in Bristol in 1697. It was a 
"work house" in the true sense of the word; inmates were compelled to 
work if able, the idea being in part to make them contribute to their own 
support and in part also, at first, to teach them trades. 



80 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

new Act was only gradually carried out, however, 
and in 1622 "a well wisher" complains, in a tract 
called "Grievous Groans for the Poor", "that the 
number of the poor do daily increase, there hath 
been no collection for them, no not these seven 
years, in many parishes of the land, especially in 
country towns ; but many of those parishes 
turneth forth their poor, yea, and their lusty 
laborers that will not work, or for any misdemeanor 
want work, to beg, filch and steal for their main- 
tenance, so that the country is pitifully pestered 
with them ; yea and the maimed soldiers that have 
ventured their lives and lost their limbs on our 
behalf are also thus requited ... so they are turned 
forth to travel in idleness (the highway to Hell) 
. . . until the law bring them unto the fearful end 
of hanging." 

Not to thieves and vagabonds alone were ex- 
treme punishments meted out. As a matter of 
stern fact England was grossly callous to all 
human suffering at this time, and almost abso- 
lutely without regard, too, for human life. The 
cruelties of the stocks and of its mate, the duck- 
ing-stool, and the lashings, scourgings, and whip- 
pings for which Old New England is so often 
reproached, — none of these originated on the 
American side of the water. The overwhelming 
proofs of this are sickening to record. Let a few 
instances suffice. 

In 1580 it had been declared treason in England 
for any one to leave the Established Church and 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 81 

become a Roman Catholic. I suppose it is not 
so very surprising, therefore, to find that in 1621, 
within six months after the saiHng of the May- 
flower, a CathoHc gentleman named Floyd, who 
was imprisoned in the Fleet, having excited popu- 
lar displeasure by speaking slightingly of the 
Elector Palatine and his wife, was actually sen- 
tenced to be degraded from his gentility, to be 
held infamous and incompetent to testify in a 
court; to ride from the Fleet to Cheapside on 
horseback w^ith no saddle and with his face to the 
horse's tail, which he was to hold in his hand; 
there to stand two hours in the pillory and to be 
branded with the letter K; four days later to 
ride in the same manner from the Fleet to West- 
minster, and there stand two hours in the pillory 
with words on a paper on his hat setting forth his 
crime; to be whipped at the cart's tail from the 
Fleet to Westminster Hall, to pay a fine of £5000 
and to remain a prisoner in Newgate for life. 

Similarly drastic sentences were meted out to 
men who, by spoken or written word, opposed the 
Church of England. For publishing in Holland, 
in 1628, "An Appeal to the Parliament, or Sion's 
Plea against the Prelacie ", a work by no means 
extreme for the time, Alexander Leighton, a 
Scotch divine, was unanimously condemned ^ by 
the Star Chamber to degradation from his ministry, 

1 John Rushworth: "Historical Collection ", 11:55-57. London, 1680. 
Reading further in this interesting volume about Mr. Leighton's case, one 
is cheered to find that he was assisted by friends to escape from prison. 



82 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

to imprisonment for life, to a fine of £10,000 — a 
sum which must have staggered the imagination 
of a Scotch dominie — to be whipped and set in 
the pillory at Westminster in the presence of the 
Court, to have one of his ears cut off and his nose 
slit, to be branded in the face with the letters 
S S (Stirrer of Sedition), to be imprisoned in the 
Fleet, to be whipped and pilloried again on a 
market day in Cheapside at some convenient later 
time, and to have the other ear cut off. 

The appalling thing about these sentences is 
the relish they reflect for cruelty as such. And 
the public taste grew no better in this regard for 
several generations. Evelyn relates with zest in 
his Diary for January 30, 1660, that Cromwell's 
body had been dragged out of its tomb in West- 
minster and exposed on the gallows in Tyburn 
from nine in the morning till six at night, and 
that this spectacle was thoroughly enjoyed by 
thousands who had seen the "arch-rebel" in all 
his pride. On October 17, 1660, he tells us that 
though he saw not the execution of Scot, Scroop, 
Cooke and Jones, he "met their quarters, mangled 
and cut and reeking, as they were brought from 
the gallows in baskets on the hurdle." While 
Pepys writes, in this same connection (October 
21, 1660), "I met George Vines who carried me 
up to the top of his turret, where there is Cooke's 
head set up for a traytor, and Harrison's set up 
on the other side of Westminster Hall. Here I 
could see them plainly." 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 83 

Obviously an age that could enjoy the sight of a 
mangled head on a spike would not be delicate in 
its personal habits. We are told that King James 
never washed his hands, and Pepys declares that 
his own wife spent the "Lord's Day", November 
22, 1668, in "making herself clean, after four or 
five weeks being in continued dirt." 

Yet at this time England had quite clearly 
defined standards of manners set down in books ; 
had, indeed, possessed such standards of a sort 
for two centuries, — ever since the publication, 
in 1430, of the first English manual of etiquette. 
Quite a literature of Books of Courtesy and rhymes 
on the best ways of living the daily life had sprung 
up by the dawn of the seventeenth century. The 
injunctions in some of these books are amusing 
by reason of their absurdity. William Vaughan, 
writing in 1602, for instance, advises wearing a 
"nyght cap of scarlet" with "a hole in the top 
through which the vapour may goe out." And 
even the famous Doctor Andrew Borde, whose 
admonitions are in many respects as worthy to 
be followed to-day as when he penned them, writes 
solemnly, "In the nyght let the windows of your 
houses specyalle of your chambre be closed."^ 

Blood-letting was the common cure for every 
variety of illness. It was thought that tumors 
could be reduced by being stroked with a dead 
man's hand and for erysipelas even so wise a man 
as Bacon advised using the warm blood of kittens. 

^ Doctor Andrew Borde on Sleep, Rising and Dress. 1557. 



\ 



84 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

As a cure for leprosy he advocated a bath of 
infant's blood ! ^ It is easy to find many other 
"cures" equally revolting. Scrofula, then called 
"king's evil," required the touch of the sovereign 
himself for its cure. Charles II averaged four 
thousand such cures a year. 

The drink habit, of course, was everywhere 
rampant, even among those accounted the best 
people. Sir William Penn was not infrequently 
so drunk as to be wholly incapacitated for business 
and many a young parson "got himself drunk 
before dinner" without losing either his own or 
his parishioners' respect. Doctor Andrew Borde 
in his "Dyetary" of 1542, strongly advises against 
water as a beverage, counseling that people, 
for health, drink ale and wine. Water seemed 
to him of small value for bathing purposes, 
also. He tells his readers to wash their faces 
only once a week if they wish to clear it of 
spots, wiping the face between times with a 
"Skarlet cloth." 

Health standards developed rapidly, however, 
as the sixteenth century drew towards its close. 
In Hugh Rhodes' "Boke of Nurture or Schole of 
good manners" — and the admonitions of this 
counselor are of particular interest to us because 
he was born and bred in Devonshire — we find : 

Ryse you earley in the morning, 
for it hath propertyes three : 

^"History Vitce et Mortis." Longman (1858) Translation. Vol. V, 
p. 307. 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 85 

Holynesse, health, and happy welth, 

as my Father taught mee. 
At syxe of the clocke, without delay, 

use commonly to ryse. 

Make cleane your shoes, & combe your head, 

and your cloathes button or lace : 
And see at no tyme you forget 

to wash your hands and face. 

A page or two later in this same book^ advice is 
given against spitting on the table, blowing the 
nose on the napkin, throwing bones under the 
table and picking the teeth "with thy Knyfe." 

The table was not the only place where gross 
manners prevailed. Ladies received their male 
friends w^hile in bed or while dressing ; people paid 
their respects to the bridegroom and the bride 
after they had retired upon their wedding night, 
and fashionable women wore masks to the theater 
that they might not be put to the trouble of trying 
to blush at the vulgarity of many of the plays 
there exhibited. In the country marriages were 
often put off till late and in the city among the 
higher classes were solemnized at a ridiculously 
early age. Evelyn (II : 77, 135) speaks of the 
marriage of the only daughter of Lord Arlington 
at five years and of her remarriage at twelve years. 

Of a piece with this preposterous custom of 
child marriage among the rich were the clothes 
worn by the nobles of the time. Harrison solemnly 

1" Imprinted at London in Fleetstreete, beneath the Conduite, at the 
Signe of S. John Evangelist, by H. Jackson." 1577. 



86 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

asserts that often, in London, he could not tell 
the gallants from women, so elaborate were their 
clothes. Joseph Strutt says ^ that a special gal- 
lery was erected around the inside of the Parlia- 
ment House for the accommodation of the 
"bombasted" or " beer-barrel " breeches of the 
period, — breeches so ample that they could be 
used as wardrobe trunks, apparently ; at any rate 
there is a fairly well authenticated story of a man 
who took out of his breeches a pair of sheets, two 
tablecloths, ten napkins, four shirts and a brush, 
glass and comb as well as nightcaps. 

This exaggeration in men's attire was largely 
due to Queen Elizabeth, who liked magnificence 
and the bizarre in those about her. It therefore 
behooved a gallant not only to adorn himself 
grandly but also to cultivate grandeur in those 
of his household if he wished to make an impres- 
sion on the Virgin Queen. The Earl of Hereford 
once met his sovereign at Elvatham, attended by 
a retinue of three thousand men fitted out for the 
occasion with black and yellow feathers and gold 
chains. In the light of this bid for a lady's favor, 
Shakespeare's Malvolio, mincing about in cross 
garters and yellow stockings, ceases to be too 
fantastic for belief. Exploration among the fash- 
ions of this period greatly helps one to understand 
Shakespeare ; and to understand Bradford. There 
were styles deliberately designed to emphasize cer- 

* " Complete View of the Dress and Habits of the People of England." 
Ed. 1842, vol. II, p. 144, note. 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 87 

tain portions of the human figure and so to stimu- 
late impurity. One ceases to wonder why the 
Pilgrims left England, after reading such a book 
as Doctor John Bulwer's "Pedigree of the Eng- 
lish Gallant." ^ 

The provident traveler who carried sheets, table- 
cloths, and napkins in his wide trousers brings us, 
by an easy transition, to the general subject of 
transportation facilities three hundred years ago. 
Even in London, coaches could not be hired pre- 
vious to 1630. Most Englishmen who could afford 
to do so rode their own horses. Yet along the 
chief thoroughfares there were posthouses about 
every ten miles ; and between London and the 
chief towns carriers made regular trips with long 
covered carts and would accept a passenger, pro- 
vided he were willing to stay at the inns where 
the carrier lodged. Near London, Fynes Moryson 
tells us, the roads (in 1617) were "sandy and very 
faire, and continually kept so by labor of hands." 
But once outside thickly settled territory, highways 
quickly became mere bridle paths, with only an 
occasional bridge over the streams, most of which, 
therefore, had to be forded, — unless the traveler 
chose to creep across on a single timber and cling 
to a handrail at its side, leading his wading or 
swimming beast with the hand left free. The old 
Roman roads had long since ceased to be kept 
passable. 

1 This Is an appendix to his " Man Transform'd, or the Artificial Change- 
ling" (London : 1650) : a work written to show how clothes were perverting 
at this time the "regular beauty and honesty of nature." 



88 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Making a journey under such conditions was 
naturally a thing that took time.^ So, of course, 
there had to be many inns ; and outside the great 
cities these were almost uniformly good. Fal- 
staff's assertion that a man could take his ease in 
his inn is supported by both Fynes Moryson and 
Harrison. The latter asserts that many of Eng- 
land's thriving towns had sumptuous inns in the 
sixteenth century which were well furnished and 
in which every guest had clean sheets. Some of 
these could lodge three men and their horses, "and 
with a verie short warning make such provision 
for their diet, as to him that is unacquainted 
withall may seem to be incredible." ^ 

Breakfast, as we understand the meal, was 
conspicuous by its absence at these excellent inns 
and in most households. J. C. Jeaffreson, in his 
entertaining "Book About the Table", tells us 
that the morning draught at the inn was, in fact, 
"the ordinary breakfast of the majority of English- 
men. . . . Unless they bear this fact in mind 
readers of old biographies are apt to attribute 
tavern-haunting propensities to sober and dis- 
creet gentlemen." 

None the less the frequency of Shakespeare's 
allusions to breakfast demonstrate that this re- 
past was fairly common in Elizabethan England. 

^ It required from three o'clock on Thursday morning till daybreak on 
the following Sunday for a messenger, traveling as fast as he possibly could 
go, to convey from London to York such an epoch-making piece of news 
as the death of Elizabeth ! 

2 Harrison, p. 109. Furnivall's Edition. 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 89 

Thomas Cogan, a contemporary of Harrison's 
— and scarcely less an authority than the Canon 
of Windsor himself on the table customs of their 
time — bears witness to "breakfast, dinner, and 
supper" as the three regular daily meals of well- 
kept Englishmen towards the close of the sixteenth 
century. Rising about six o'clock, it was the 
general custom of these folk to breakfast after 
making the toilet, to dine at ten or eleven o'clock 
and to sup at five in the afternoon. Harrison's 
schedule fits this, — save for the breakfast. 

"With us," he says, "the nobilitie, gentrie, and 
students doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven 
before noon, and to supper at five, or between five 
and six afternoone. The merchants dine and sup 
seldome before twelve at noone and six at night, 
especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also 
at high noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or 
eight ; but out of tearme in our universities the 
scholers dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they 
generallie dine and sup where they may, so that 
to talk of their order of repast, it were but a need- 
lesse matter." 

The diet of the poor consisted largely of rye or 
barley bread soaked in pot-liquor. This was 
called brewis. The mainstay of their table in 
winter was salted bacon or mutton and pickled 
herrings or other fish. Meat pie without a bottom 
crust (called florentines) was the favorite dish of 
practically all classes, especially when made with 
venison. No deprivation to which the Pilgrims 



90 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

were subjected pressed quite so hard as the impos- 
sibiHty of securing daily on New England's rock- 
bound coast a meal in which the pastie was wont 
to form the piece de resistance. 

Common folk ate their food with wooden or 
latteen (iron plated with tin) spoons from wooden 
trenchers, using with abandon the knife dear to 
their fathers ; and people of all classes aided them- 
selves without apology with the fingers, it still 
being some years before forks were introduced 
from Italy. Napkins were therefore in great 
demand. Where a large establishment was main- 
tained, a long table was spread in the hall and a 
large salt-cellar, placed midway on the board, 
divided the sheep from the goats, as it were ; that 
is, retainers and domestics sat with the family 
but helow the salt. 

In such households, life was not altogether 
unhappy despite the horrors of the pillory, the 
black shadows of religious persecution, and the 
uncertainty which pressed on a large proportion 
of the population as to where the next meal was 
coming from. The ugly conditions which this 
chapter has been attempting to set forth all 
existed ; but there were mitigations as well. For 
one thing there was no standing army in England 
at this time ; and though most men were liable to 
serve in the militia and were drilled systematically 
from one to six times a year, armor had now be- 
come decidedly less cumbersome than formerly. 

People following the seasons' round of agricul- 



ENGLAND IN THAT DAY 91 

tural duties had many happy times, too. And it 
was from farmer folk chiefly that the Pilgrims 
were recruited. So, though there were deep and 
definite shadows darkening the land they left 
behind them, it must be remembered that it 
was none the less a land dear to them, — a place 
where familiar duties were tied up with deeply- 
rooted associations. To minimize the sacrifices 
they made in leaving it for the wilderness would be 
to fail to give due weight to one very important 
aspect of their character. 

But they had caught a vision of freedom for 
all men which gave them strength to make the 
sacrifice. They had tried to make their dreams 
come true nearer England and had failed. Eng- 
land, they had discovered, was not appreciably 
worse than the continent. The general drift of 
public affairs all over Europe at this time was 
towards tyranny and oppression. In Germany, 
Ferdinand II was carrying on the Thirty Years 
War to suppress Protestantism and the liberty for 
which Protestantism stood. Spain, under Philip 
III, had already become an autocracy. And 
France was qualifying for the moment when 
Louis XIV should say, *'I am the State." There 
was nothing left for the Separatists but an over- 
seas venture ; and no phase of such a venture 
was possible for them except one they should 
carve out for themselves. The thought of James- 
town and Chesapeake, where a comfortable colony 
was already in existence, was almost of necessity 



>- > 



92 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

rejected because it was felt that, having suffered 
and sacrificed so much for the sake of escaping 
Episcopacy, it would be folly indeed to transplant 
themselves to a settlement in which the Church 
of England had taken firm root. 

Moreover, the lure of colonizing an utterly un- 
known section made an enormous appeal to this 
religious-minded group, steeped in Biblical lore 
and guided in their conduct by scriptural tradi- 
tions and examples. The idea of wending their 
way to a new land which they should possess in 
the Lord's name came to them with irresistible 
force. Yonder was their Canaan to be won and 
peopled for the Lord's purposes ! 



CHAPTER VI 

HOW THEY SAILED INTO THE UNKNOWN 

As might have been expected, the Mayflower 
voyage over was far from a pleasant one. Sixty - 
five days at sea, with a good proportion of the 
company seasick most of the time, would try the 
stoutest hearts, even when a comfortable home 
and dear ones were loiown to be waiting on the 
other side. In this case, every one was sailing 
into the unknown. Moreover, Captain Jones, 
who was in charge of the ship, was an extremely 
unsympathetic person and his sailors appear to 
have been exceptionally coarse and brutal. One 
stout young seaman was in the habit of adding 
to the sufferings of the Pilgrims by abusive lan- 
guage ; and, when gently reproved, would violently 
curse and blaspheme, expressing the hope that he 
might soon "throw the bodies of half the pas- 
sengers into the sea." It was perhaps poetic 
justice, if not an act of God, that in a few days 
this man sickened and died, so that he himself 
had to be consigned to an ocean grave. 

About halfway across, one of the main beams 
in the middle of the ship was found to be bowed 



94 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and cracked, so that it was feared it might be 
necessary to turn back again ; but after a consul- 
tation between Captain Jones and his officers, it 
was decided that the voyage could continue, and 
the beam was raised by means of a great iron 
jack which some one among the passengers had 
fortuitously brought out of Holland. This great 
screw was one of many bulky things stowed away 
in the ship. Such things must have taken up a 
great deal of room and, though useful, are simply 
amazing when regarded as part of a pioneering 
cargo. In fact, as one notes the huge chests of 
drawers and the many pieces of heavy furniture 
now to be seen in Pilgrim Hall and other parts 
of Plymouth, all bearing on them labels to the 
ejffect that they came over in the Mayfloiver, one 
realizes that a ship the size of this one must in- 
deed have been crowded, with so much furniture 
on board, — in addition to the one hundred and two 
passengers and the food necessary to sustain them. 
We know very little, in detail, about the look 
or proportions of "the ship ", as the Mayflower is 
consistently called by Bradford and Winslow in 
their writings. But we may infer something of 
the general type to which she belonged, and 
students of this matter have decided that she 
must have been about ninety feet long and twenty- 
four feet wide, with three masts, of which the 
fore and main mast were square-rigged without a 
jib, while the mizzenmast carried a lateen sail. A 
high forecastle and a high poop deck left the 



tt^. 






i 



,-' Here ended (iic-'Piionmaseor^ 

'■' JOHN HOWLAND 

who died February 23. ;67-|. 
a^ed above Oo yeari. ^ ' 
He married Elizabeth daughter of 
^ JOHN TltL£y 
who came with hira inihe 
Mayflower Dec^6^o 
From them are tlescende4^ 
numerou'i posterity. • 

" Hec^ai a godly man and an uMknt : 
professor in the'wayeior,Chrisl.He^^««i 
one of the first corners into ihii land and 
was the last man itiat,wasler|,of mow j 
that came over Ifi the Shipp called me - 
Mayflo.wer.h.. lived ir-Ply^oom^Jl 






0^ 






■"^V^: 



"^t^^ 



*^FB^^ 



"^i»*->* 



STONE KRE( TKl) ON BIRIAL HILL PLYMOriH, TO JOHN HOWLAND 

•THE LAST >L\N THAT WAS LEFT OF THOSE THAT CAME OVER IN THE 

SHIP CALLED THE MAYFLOWER, THAT LIVED IN PLYMOUTH" 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 95 

middle of the ship low. She was what is known 
as a "wet" ship, too, and being on this voyage 
heavily laden and therefore low in the water, 
shipped more seas than usual. Once the coil of 
the topsail halyards was washed over and trailed 
in the sea; soon afterwards, John Rowland, "a 
lusty young man ", coming up on deck, was like- 
wise carried overboard. Rowland was fortunate 
enough to catch a grip on the coil and to hang on 
to it until he was safely fished up with a boat hook. 
He had a short illness as a result, but survived to 
live many years in the Colony and to be the 
progenitor of a family which still looms large in 
Plymouth history because of a fine old house that 
bears their name and is to-day a favorite haunt of 
visitors. One passenger died during the voyage, 
— William Button, who appears to have been an 
apprentice to Doctor Fuller. But the passenger 
list remained at one hundred and two because 
Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins became the parents 
of a son during the trip, who, by reason of his . 

birthplace, was named "Oceanus." Appropriately ? i^J'^ 
Oceanus in later life followed the sea as a profes- (a/> "^ 
sion. 

One is impressed with the youth of the "Pilgrim 
Fathers." Bradford was thirty-one, Winslow 
twenty-five, Allerton thirty-two, Standish thirty- 
six, and Alden only twenty-one. There is every 
reason to believe that only two of the whole com- 
pany were over fifty years of age, and only nine 
over forty. 



96 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

We know that there were no young cattle ^ on 
board because a great deal was made of the later 
arrival in Plymouth of these important adjuncts 
to civilized English life. Presumably there were 
poultry, swine, and goats penned up forward. 
Much of the space between decks was occupied 
by a shallop transported in pieces which, when 
put together, was about thirty feet long. The 
passengers slept aft in cabins and bunks of a sort, 
while the crew lived forward. 

One great difficulty was that very little cooked 
food could be had. The only method of cooking 
was by means of a frying pan held over a charcoal 
fire or a kettle suspended on the iron tripod over 
a box of sand. Cooking under these conditions 
for one hundred and two passengers and a crew 
of twenty or more was obviously so difficult as to 
be almost impossible. There was also little op- 
portunity for bathing or washing, which must 
have been a sore hardship to the Pilgrims, as they 
were rather ahead of their time in their regard for 
cleanliness. The staples of food were certainly 
bacon, hard tack, salt beef, smoked herring, cheese, 
and small beer or ale. For luxuries there were 
butter, vinegar, mustard, and probably lemons 
and prunes. Gin they also had, and possibly 
brandy. The food was given out in day rations 
with due regard to the fact that it must be care- 

' Longfellow makes a great bull, so to speak, when he depicts Priscilla 
as mounted on a milk-white steer. No cattle were landed in Plymouth 
until many months after this marriage ceremony, which is supposed to have 
occurred in 1622. 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 97 

fully conserved against the long time ahead when 
they might not be able to lay their hands on any- 
thing edible. 

On November 9th, they saw land which the 
sailors at once identified as the shore of Cape Cod. 
Then they knew that instead of being close to 
the Virginia Colony, toward which they had 
thought to sail, they were really on the edge of 
New England, as Captain John Smith had named 
this country some six years before. It was Bar- 
tholomew Gosnold, however, who, while trying in 
1602 to find a direct passage for New England 
and America, first came upon the promontory 
which, from the abundance of codfish in the sur- 
rounding seas, he called Cape Cod. His sailors 
were the first Englishmen to set foot in New 
England, and he himself went so far as to make 
preparations for founding a colony on the Eliza- 
beth Isles. But when his ship was ready to leave, 
his little band of settlers lost their courage and 
returned with it, fearing starvation and Indian 
treachery. Other unsuccessful expeditions were 
also sent out to this part of America during the 
early years of the century, but little was done 
beside fishing. Then in 1614, financed by four 
London merchants, came Captain John Smith in 
charge of two ships and a company of men also 
bent on fishing. While they pursued this calling. 
Smith himself sailed up and down the coast mak- 
ing maps or "plots" of North Virginia and New 
England, which though not in any way authentic 



98 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

or particularly trustworthy, served to convince 
him that he knew the country well. He also 
called the land New England, though one of his 
captains, Hunt, who appears to have been a 
thoroughly bad lot, tried to *' drown that name 
with the eccho of Cannaday", out of jealousy of 
Smith. On his return to England after this trip, 
Smith showed his map to Prince Charles, begging 
him to confirm the name of New England and to 
christen the principal places discovered, so that 
it would be henceforth *'an unmannerly presump- 
tion in any that doth alter them without leave." 

After his second voyage in 1615 with sixteen 
men in the employ of Sir Ferdinand Gorges and 
other members of the Plymouth company, Smith 
became a most enthusiastic publicity bureau for 
the land between Penobscot and Cape Cod. "Of 
all the foure parts of the world that I have yet 
scene not inhabited," he wrote, "could I have but 
meanes to transport a Colonic, I would rather 
live here than anywhere ; and if it did not main- 
taine itselfe were wee but once indifferently well 
fitted, let us starve." ^ Through its fisheries. 
Smith constantly declared, the country might 
become richer than Holland, cod, hake, mullet, 
sturgeon, and herring were to be had in such 
abundance. And he begged, "Let not the mean- 
nesse of the word Fish distaste you, for it will 
afford as good gold as the mines of Guiana and 
Tumbatu with lesse hazard and charge, and more 

^ Arber: "Captain John Smith." 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 99 

certalntie and facilities," Smith, indeed, had 
offered his help to the Pilgrims before their depar- 
ture, but they refused it, saying, according to his 
own statement, that his books and maps would 
be "better cheap to teach them than himself." 
To this false economy he was wont to attribute the 
misery of their first winter. 

The fact is, of course, that the Pilgrims intended 
to settle in the vicinity of the Hudson River and 
had every reason also to expect that they would 
arrive in the new country much earlier than 
November. Many of the early writers believe 
that Captain Jones had been bribed by the Dutch 
merchants to sail far to the north of Manhattan, 
and Nathaniel Morton, writing in 1669, presum- 
ably from oral tradition at Plymouth, states ex- 
plicitly that Dutch intrigue was responsible for 
making so north a port. At this distance of time 
one conjecture seems about as good as another as 
to the reason why they finally went ashore on 
Cape Cod and founded their settlement on what 
we now call Massachusetts Bay with utter dis- 
regard of the fact that by so doing they abandoned 
their patent. One outstanding fact to be noted 
in this connection is that neither Bradford nor 
Winslow express in their writings the slightest 
concern for the change in plans. Apparently they 
were quite content to take their chances, without 
any legal authorization from the Old World, on 
settling outside the territory controlled either by 
the Virginia Company or by the Dutch. 



100 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

To be sure these wise leaders took vigorous 
action when a number of the company who had 
come on board at London informed them, with no 
uncertain intent, that the abandoning of the origi- 
nal patent would leave every man his own master 
once the ship had made land. It was at this 
juncture that their real genius asserted itself, for 
they were quite equal to the emergency. Believ- 
ing that their first acts must carry official weight 
and that any want of union now would be fatal 
to the success of the enterprise on which they had 
all staked so much, it was decided to bind the 
company together by the following voluntary com- 
pact founded on the will of the people and signed 
by the forty-one adult males of the company. 

In ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are 
under writen, the loyal subjects of our dread soveraigne 
Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, 
Franc, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c. Have- 
ing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advancemente 
of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie. 
a voyage to plant ye first colonic in ye Northern parts 
of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy 
in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant & 
combine ourselves togeather into a civil body politick, 
for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of 
ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, 
constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordi- 
nances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, 
as shall be thought most meete & convenient for ye 
generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise 
all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 101 

we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Codd 
ye II. of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our 
soveragine lord, King James, of England, France, & 
Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth. 
An° : Dom. 1620. 

Of this compact John Quincy Adams wrote in 
1802: "This is perhaps the only instance in hu- 
man history of that positive, original social com- 
pact which speculative philosophers have imagined 
as the only legitimate source of government. Here 
was a unanimous, and personal assent by all the 
individuals of the community to the association, 
hy which they became a nation. . . . The settlers of 
all the former European colonies had contented 
themselves w^ith the powers conferred upon them 
by their respective charters, without looking be- 
yond the seal of the royal parchment for the 
measure of their rights and the rule of their duties. 
The founders of Plymouth had been impelled by 
the peculiarities of their situation to examine the 
subject with deeper and more comprehensive 
research." 

In coming to this country the Pilgrims most 
certainly contemplated not merely a safe retreat 
beyond the sea, where they could worship God as 
their conscience bade them, but a local govern- 
ment founded on popular choice. One need not, 
in saying this, claim that they had in mind, when 
they formulated the compact in the Mayflower on 
November 11, 1620, all the successive stages of 
colonial and provincial government which resulted 



102 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

in the establishment of a great repubUcan confed- 
eracy; but it is perfectly clear, from every docu- 
ment and manifesto that they put out, that it was 
their fixed purpose from the first to establish civil 
government on a basis of republican equality. 

What we have to remember, as we read the 
Mayflower Compact and follow the story of the 
Pilgrims and their colonization, is that it was too 
late in the world's history to carry out anywhere in 
Europe any such scheme as they had in mind. 
Absolutely the only outlook for expansion was upon 
the Atlantic Coast of America, where the preten- 
sions of Spain had now been successfully disputed 
and where a flourishing colony had at length been 
founded in Virginia after nearly half a century of 
disappointment and disaster. Further to colonize 
along the North American coast was now part of 
the avowed policy of the British Government. 

The year 1606 had seen a great joint-stock com- 
pany formed for the establishment of two colonies 
in America. This company had headquarters in 
London for the proposed southern branch of its 
enterprise, while the management of the northern 
branch was directed at Plymouth and Devonshire. 
(Hence the two branches are commonly spoken 
of as the London and the Plymouth companies, 
although the former was also called the Virginia 
Company at times, and the latter the North 
Virginia Company, the name Virginia being then 
loosely applied to the entire Atlantic coast north 
of Florida.) The London Company had jurisdic- 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 103 

tion from 34° to 38° north latitude ; the Plymouth 
Company had jurisdiction from 45° down to 41°. 
It was understood that the intervening territory 
(between 38° and 41°) was to go to whichever 
company should first plant a self-supporting 
colony.^ 

The first act of the citizens of the new-made 
State was to "confirm" John Carver as Governor 
until their next New Year's Day, thus conferring 
on the deacon of the emigrating Church and the 
confidential friend of Robinson a continuance of 
the authority which had been given him when the 
Mayfloiver sailed from Southampton. And now, 
having a form of government adequate at any 
rate for the present and an executive who should 
enforce that government, the Mayflower came to 
anchor about a mile from the site of Province town. 
And on the same afternoon (November 11-21), 
sixteen men, well armed and headed by Captain 
Miles Standish, went on shore to explore and to 
fetch back wood to the ship. Climbing the hills, 
they ascertained the shape of that portion of the 
Cape and brought back the report that the land 
consisted of hills of sand, not unlike the dunes of 
the Holland so far behind them. 

This similarity between the formation of Cape 
Cod and the country about Leyden not improbably 
evoked more than one homesick pang in the hearts 

1 General supervision over all these American colonies was to be exercised 
by a council resident in England, the understanding being that a council 
resident in America and nominated by the King should have immediate super- 
vision over the local government of each enterprise. 



\ 



104 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

of these men who, one hundred and thirty -three 
days ( ! ) back, had bidden farewell to their friends 
in the harbor of Delftshaven. But their leader. 
Miles Standish, was not an introspective person 
or given to sentiment. The official word which 
he brought on his return from exploring the Cape 
was that the shore proved to be a small neck of 
land, partly wooded ; that they could find neither 
person nor habitation on it, and that the forests 
were rich in oak, pine, juniper, birch, and holly, 
with some ash and walnut. The woods they had 
found to be like a grove or park, so free from under- 
brush that a person might ride a horse in any 
direction. They learned afterwards that this was 
due to the savages, who burned the country over 
every spring and fall to destroy the undergrowth 
which hindered their hunting. All were particu- 
larly delighted to find sassafras in abundance, for 
this, they knew, possessed a high market value by 
reason of its medicinal virtues.^ 

Roland G. Usher, who has written a most valu- 
able book called " The Pilgrims and Their History ", 
in the course of which he has particularly stressed 
the economic aspects of their enterprise, points 
out that these God-intoxicated men from East 
Anglia and Holland were almost ludicrously un- 
prepared to deal with life in the trading post of a 
new country. Apparently none of the passengers 

^Sassafras root was bringing three shillings a pound in England; in 1604 
Champlain had noted with delight that it was worth fifty livres a pound in 
France. Explorers always rejoiced in finding it and were glad to load ships 
for the Old World with it. 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 105 

had ever fished, and, with the exception of Stand- 
ish, most of them were equally innocent of the 
mechanism of a gun. In England they had been 
farmers, as we have seen, and in Holland they 
had followed whatever trade they could and mostly 
been not too successful in their vocations. In the 
course of the early weeks in the thickets of Cape 
Cod, they shot a bird which they took to be an 
*' eagle", and were frequently frightened by 
"lions!" 

Yet they expected to establish themselves by 
fishing and hunting and by bartering beads, toys, 
and cloth with the Indians of the district. If 
only their supplies held out they might success- 
fully achieve this, too, in spite of their obvious 
limitations. They were equipped with a large 
stock of salt, some clothing, trinkets, and presents 
for the Indians ; they had peas, beans, and seed 
for growing the onions, turnips, parsnips, and car- 
rots, of which they were so fond; and they had, 
too, adequate culinary utensils and tools with 
which to do carpentry and blacksmith ing. Cap- 
tain Miles Standish had apparently looked with 
some care to the matter of military equipment, for 
guns, swords, side armour, breastplates, and the 
like were fairly well represented in the Mayflower's 
cargo, according to the labels on these relics in 
Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth. 

More important than anything else, they had 
good constitutions, loyalty to each other, and 
devotion to a high religious ideal. Eager as they 



106 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

must have been to get at the work of active 
exploration, they observed the Sabbath which 
followed their first day ashore inviolate. Not 
until Monday did work begin in earnest. Then, 
while the carpenter wrestled with the task of mak- 
ing their shallop safe for the big task which 
awaited it, the women sought and found fresh 
water in which to wash their clothes. 

On Monday the thirteenth ^ of November (O. S.) 
the people went ashore to refresh themselves "and 
our women to wash, as they had great need." 
Thus New England housewives began at once to 
observe the ritual of the week's work, to which 
New England tradition has ever since adhered. 

One mid-Victorian chronicler of early Plymouth 
activities is so impressed by the memory of these 
Pilgrim mothers doing the family washing out in 
the open air on a bleak November day that he 
quotes with fervor : 

There was no need 
In those good times, of trim Callisthenics — ■ 
And there was less of gadding, and far more 

1 It should be borne in mind that the Old Colony Records and indeed all 
the contemporary books of the period were written at a time when the 
Julian method of computing time, commonly known as the Old Style, was 
in use in England and its dependencies ; and that therefore in New England, 
the legal year began on Conception Day, the 25th of March. The addition 
of ten days to the seventeenth-century dates will change the dating to New 
Style. Months in the Julian calendar differed also from those of the Gre- 
gorian, now in use. Thus we have : 

1 March 5 July 9 November 

2 April 6 August 10 December 

3 May 7 September 11 January 

4 June 8 October 12 February 



INTO THE UNKNOWN 107 

Of home-born, heart-felt comfort rooted strong 
In industry, and bearing such rare fruit 
As wealth may never purchase. 

If by this he means to say that hard work was 
the sole exercise and diversion of the Pilgrim 
Mothers, no one will be found to say him nay ; 
but this was true of the Pilgrim Fathers, also. 
There was no sex discrimination in the Plymouth 
Colony as administered by William Bradford and 
his associates. 



CHAPTER Vn 

HOW THEY SET UP A HOME IN THE NEW WORLD 

Every visitor to Plymouth journeys piously to 
Plymouth Rock, which is now protected by an 
iron fence and has a curious little pagoda built 
over it. It has been humorously said that if 
this Rock could have attracted the sea as it 
attracts sight-seers, Plymouth would have had a 
very respectable harbor and would necessarily 
have engaged in the kind of trade that goes with 
a harbor. But most of its shipping is of the 
steamboat variety. Every day in summer a 
crowded boat comes in from Boston, and a multi- 
tude of men, women, and children rush to the 
Rock, — before rushing to the restaurant for 
dinner. They walk about it and in awed tones 
declare that it was here that Mary Chilton landed. 
Then, if their sight-seeing spirit carries them so 
far, they travel in memory of Mary Chilton to a 
little village near by called Chiltonville, all out 
of respect to the maiden who is supposed to 
have first set foot on the shores of New England 
via this Rock. 

Yet one finds no mention of Mary Chilton in 






THK CANOPY OVKR THE ROCK 

From ;i ski-l.-h l.y H..wm-,l Lfiali. 




? a 



IN THE NEW WORLD 109 

the authentic early accounts of the " Landing " ; 
and there have been those who impiously ques- 
tioned the degree of authentic intimacy between 
this rock and the first days passed by the Pilgrims 
at Plymouth. Its elevation into an object of hero- 
worship dates from 1741, when Thomas Faunce, 
ninety -four years old, told some people who were 
about to cover the Rock with a wharf that his 
father had told him, when he was a boy, that the 
Mayflower passengers landed on this bowlder. 

To be sure Faunce's father was not a passenger 
on the Mayflower, and the memory of a man 
ninety -four years old might very well be doubted 
in regard to things said to him as a boy. Yet it 
is a fact that some of the passengers of the May- 
flower were still living in Faunce's lifetime, and 
that some of these were in the shallop which 
came to the shore on Monday, December 11-21, 
1620, from Clark's Island, where the Pilgrims 
spent their first Sabbath on the shores of the 
New World. Moreover, Faunce was born in 
1647 and was ten years old when Governor Brad- 
ford died, twenty -six years old when John How- 
land died, thirty-six years old when Samuel 
Fuller died, and forty years old when John Alden 
and Elizabeth Tilley died. All these persons 
were passengers in the Mayflower and some were 
in the shallop when the first landing was made. 
Very likely there is reason for believing the story 
of the Rock if not that of Mary Chilton. Any- 
how, a great many people have had their patriotic 



110 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

emotions stirred by gazing upon this symbol of 
the landing of the Mayflower, and history is proba- 
bly quite as right in this matter as in many an- 
other. 

The contemporaneous story of the first days 
passed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth is as follows : 

The nineteenth of December, after our landing and 
viewing of the places so well as we could, we came to 
a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main land, 
on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a 
great deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with 
corn three or four years ago ; and there is a very sweet 
brook runs under the hill side, and many delicate 
springs of good water as can be drunk, and where we 
may harbour our shallops, and boats exceeding well ; 
and in this brook is much good fish in their seasons ; 
on the further side of the river also much corn ground 
cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we point 
to make a platform, and plant our ordinance ; which 
will command all round about. From thence we may 
see into the bay, and far into the sea; and we may 
see from thence Cape Cod. 

Saturday, the three and twentieth, so many of us 
as could went on shore, felled and carried timber, to 
provide themselves stuff for building. Monday, the 
five and twentieth, we went on shore, some to fell 
timber, some to saw, some to rive, and some to carry : 
so no man rested all that day. 

Monday, the five and twentieth, being Christmas 
day, we began to drink water aboard ; but at night 
the master caused us to have some beer; and so on 
board we had divers times now and then some beer. 



IN THE NEW WORLD 111 

but on shore none at all. We took notice how many 
families they were, willing all single men, that had 
no wives, to join with some family, as they thought 
fit, that so we might build fewer houses ; which was 
done, and we reduced them to nineteen families. To 
greater families we allotted larger plots ; to every 
person half a pole in breadth, and three in length ; 
and so lots were cast where every man should lie ; 
which was done, and staked out. We thought this 
proportion was large enough at the first, for houses 
and gardens to impale them round, considering the 
weakness of our people, many of them growing ill 
with colds ; for our former discoveries in frost and 
storms, and the wading at Cape Cod, had brought 
much weakness amonnst us, which increased every 
day more and more, and after was the cause of many 
of our deaths. 

Here, almost certainly from the pen of Edward 
Winslow, we have facts, not conjecture or romance, 
concerning the beginnings of New England history. 
The dates are, of course. Old Style, — as he wrote 
them. This accomit, as preserved in "Mourt's 
Relation ", continues : 

Friday and Saturday we fitted ourselves for our 
labour, but our people on shore were much troubled 
and discouraged with rain and wet that day, being 
very stormy and cold. We saw great smokes of fire 
made by the Indians, about six or seven miles from 
us, as we conjectured. 

Thursday, the fourth of January, Captain Miles 
Standish, with four or five more, went to see if they 
could meet with any of the savages in that place whep* 



112 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the fires were made. They went to some of their 
houses, but not lately inhabited; yet could they not 
meet with any. As they came home, they shot at an 
agle and killed her, which was excellent meat; it was 
hardly to be discerned from mutton. 

Tuesday, the ninth of January, was a reasonable 
fair day ; and we went to labour that day in building 
of our town, in two rows of houses for more safety. 
We divided by lot the plot of ground whereon to build 
our town, after the proportion formerly allotted. We 
agreed that every man should build his own house, 
thinking by that course men would make more haste 
than working in common. The common house, in 
which for the first we made our rendezvous, being 
near finished, wanted only covering, it being about 
twenty foot square. Some should make mortar, and 
some gather thatch; so that in four days half of it 
was thatched. Frost and foul weather hindred us 
much. This time of the year seldom could we work 
half the week. . . . 

Yet work they did heartily and with a will 
when the weather made outdoor work possible, 
— and that first New England winter appears 
to have been an unusually mild one. Then a 
great misfortune, which might almost have turned 
out a disaster, befell. 

The house [i.e. the "common house"] was fired 
occasionally by a spark that flew into the thatch, which 
instantly burnt it all up ; but the roof stood and little 
hurt. The most loss was Master Carver's and William 
Bradford's, who then lay sick in bed, and if they had 
not risen with good speed, had been blown up with 




J- 



i; 



IN THE NEW WORLD 113 

powder ; but through God's mercy, they had no harm. 
The house was as full of beds as they could lie one by 
another, and their muskets charged; but blessed be 
God, there was no harm done. 

Monday, the fifteenth day, it rained much all day, 
that they on shipboard could not go on shore, nor 
they on shore do any labour, but were all wet. Tues- 
day, Wednesday, Thursday, were very fair sunshiny 
days, as if it had been in April; and our people, so 
many as were in health, wrought cheerfully. 

The nineteenth day we resolved to make a shed to 
put our common provision in, of which some were 
already set on shore. . . . 

Saturday, the seventeenth day, in the morning, we 
called a meeting for establishing of military orders 
amongst ourselves ; and we chose Miles Standish for 
our captain, and gave him authority to command in 
affairs. . . . 

The things of which the Pilgrims found them- 
selves most in need during those early days we 
learn also from Winslow : meat, of course ; meal, 
a good store of clothes, bedding, muskets, lemons, 
butter, oil, "paper and linced oyle for your win- 
dowes with cotton yarne for your Lamps and a 
store of powder and shot." Writing back to 
England in December, 1621, he reported ^ that 
already they had built seven dwelling houses 
and four for the use of the Plantation as well as 
made preparation for several others. "We set 
last Spring," he says at this time, "some twenty 

1 Also in "Mourt's Relation," the joint product of Winslow and Brad- 
ford, which was printed in London in 1622. 



114 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHER, 

acres of Indian corn ; and sowed some six acres 
of barley and peas ; and according to the manner 
of the Indians, we manured our ground with 
herrings or rather shads [alewives], which we 
have in great abundance, and take with great 
ease at our doors [that is, in the Town Brook]. 
Our corn did prove well, and God be praised ! 
we had a good increase of Indian corn ; and our 
barley [was] indifferent[ly] good : but our pease 
not worth the gathering ; for we feared they were 
too late sown. They came up very well, and 
blossomed : but the sun parched them in the 
blossom." 

/ The first harvest did so well, indeed, that after 
it was gathered in. Governor Bradford sent four 
men out to kill wild fowl so that the fifty-one 
people who were in the Colony might enjoy the 
fruits of their labors together in a celebration 
that has now come down to us as the first New 
England Thanksgiving Day. This historic feast 
was graced by the presence of Massasoit and his 
entire tribe, and it lasted at least three days and 
included not only several hearty meals, but drill- 
ing, dancing, singing by the Indians, and some 
outdoor sports. Probably to us this would seem 
like an outdoor barbecue attended by the entire 
population rather than an individualistic Thanks- 
giving with every householder eating in his own 
home. 

But after this there were no more feasts for 
some time. On November 20-30, 1621, there 



IN THE NEW WORLD 115 

arrived from England the Fortune, bearing thirty- 
five new colonists who were utterly without tools, 
clothes, or food ! For the succeeding two years 
there was never a moment when the wolf was not 
at the door in Plymouth as a result of this. In 
the summer of 1623, when a second band of 
newcomers landed from the Anne, they found 
their friends "in a very low condition." "Many 
were ragged in aparal and some litle beter then 
halfe naked ... for food they were all alike 
save some that had got a few peas of the ship 
that was last hear. The best dish they could 
present their freinds with was a lobster or a peece 
of fish without bread or anything els but a cupp 
of fair spring water," Bradford tells us. And 
Winslow adds that he had often seen men stagger 
at noon from weakness induced by hunger. 

Yet this was the time when John Pory chose 
to write back a most fulsome description of life 
in the Colony. John Pory was Secretary for 
Virginia, and he visited Plymouth late in 1622 
(O. S.) on his way back to England. According 
to him there was no reason why the Pilgrims 
should have suffered for want of food. His 
letter, dwelling on the milk and honey — other- 
wise the fish and fowl — with which the place 
abounded was, indeed, such as to make Plymouth 
stock take a great leap upward in England. Brad- 
ford says in this connection : 

"Behold now another providence of God, a 
ship comes into this harbor, one Captain Jon(e)s 



116 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

being cheefe therein, . . . ther was in this ship 
a gentle-man by name Mr. John Poory, he had 
been SECRETARIE in Virginia, and was now 
going home passenger in this ship . . . and him 
selfe after his returne did this poore plantation 
much credite, amongst those of no mean rank." 

Verily, yes ! Pory seems to have been a born 
publicity man. By playing up the virtues of 
the Colony and suppressing the disadvantages 
and discomforts of life in Plymouth, he unques- 
tionably heightened the desire of many English- 
men to emigrate thither while at the same time 
comforting and reassuring ^ those great ones at 
home who had sunk their good money in what 
they had come to fear was a losing venture. 

For the next five years the bread-and-butter 
problem was the all-absorbing problem at Plym- 
outh. One reason was that when the Pilgrims 
had pledged themselves to work four days in 
the week for the merchants who financed their 
undertaking, it had been in the expectation that 
the latter would bear the real burden of support- 
ing the Colony during its early years. But when 
they failed to receive adequate support from 

^ Scarcely anything is known of the history of this priceless manuscript 
of John Pory's, save that it was acquired, a few years ago, by the John Car- 
ter Brown Library of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Its 
little unbound quarto of thirty-two pages (three of them blank) was, a year 
ago, edited and prepared for the press by Champlin Burrage, formerly 
Librarian of Manchester College, Oxford, for a limited edition issued by 
the Houghton Mifflin* Company of Boston, under the title "John Pory's 
Lost Description of Plymouth Colony in the earliest days of the Pilgrim 
Fathers." 



IN THE NEW WORLD 117 

England, and ship after ship arrived bringing 
with it instead more mouths to feed, want, not 
to say starvation, soon stared them in the face. 
If they could have been satisfied by a diet of 
cod and lobsters and clams, they might have 
suffered less, but for a long time they resolutely 
refused, in a way colonizing Englishmen to this 
day continue to refuse, to eat anything but the 
food to which they had been accustomed. More- 
over, they were persuaded that the drinking of 
water would be followed by terrible diseases. 
Those who returned from the settlement to Eng- 
land made a great point of the fact that the water 
was "not wholsome", to which Bradford re- 
plied : "If they mean not so wholsome as a good 
beere and wine in London (which they so dearly 
loved), we will not dispute with them; but els 
for water, its as good as any in the world (for 
ought we knowe), and it is wholsome enough to 
us that can be contente therwith." 

The big difficulty still remained : that of making 
profit for the Adventurers and at the same time 
earning enough to supply the colonists' own 
needs. So, since it was now clear that they 
could spend six days a week in the employ of 
the merchants only at the grave risk of starva- 
tion — inasmuch as no regular supplies of food 
were to be looked for from England — it was 
determined to abandon the work in common and 
to begin an entirely new system. 

As much land was thereupon allotted to each 



118 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

man and his family as he could profitably use. 
From this he was to retain the entire proceeds, 
but on the other hand he was to be entirely 
responsible for his own support. From the spring 
of 1623 an immediate improvement in economic 
conditions was noted. Everybody who had 
worked hard before worked harder now, and 
those who had not worked at all before began 
to do their share. It is interesting in a day 
when the idea of communism is making a strong 
appeal to many people in America that an experi- 
ment in communism should have been tried three 
hundred years ago in this country and abandoned 
as impracticable. 

One of the most graphic descriptions ^ that we 
have from the pen of an outsider of early life in 
Plymouth has been supplied by Isaak de Rasieres, 
secretary of the governing body of the Dutch 
settlement at Manhattan, who, in the autumn 
of 1627, made a visit to Plymouth and wrote 
back to Director Samuel Blommaert of his com- 
pany in Holland so full a description of Plymouth- 
as-he-saw-it that it seems worth while to repro- 
duce it here practically in its entirety. He 
records : 

Coming out of the River Nassau, you sail east 
by north about fourteen miles along the coast, a 
half a mile from the shore; and you then come to 
Frenchman's Point,^ at a small river where those 

1 The original was found in the Royal Library at the Hague. A transla- 
tion is printed in the New York Historical Collections, vol. II, new series. 
^ Agawam Point, near the head of Buzzard's Bay. 



IN THE NEW WORLD 119 

of Patucxet [the Indian name for New Plymouth] 
have a house of hewn oak planks called Aptucxet/ 
where they keep two men, winter and summer, in 
order to maintain the trade and possession, where 
also they have built a shallop in order to go and look 
after the trade in sewan [wampum] in Sloup's Bay ^ 
and thereabouts, because they are afraid to pass Cape 
Malabar, and in order to avoid the length of the way, 
— which I have prevented for this year by selling them 
fifty fathoms of sewan, because the seeking after sewan 
by them is prejudicial to us, inasmuch as they would 
by so doing discover the trade in furs ; which, if they 
were to find out, it would be a great trouble for us to 
maintain, for they already dare to threaten that if 
we will not leave ofT dealing with that people, they 
shall be obliged to use other means. If they do that 
now, while they are yet ignorant how the case stands, 
what will they do when they get a notion of it ? 

From Aptucxet the English can come in six hours, 
through the woods, passing severall little rivulets of 
fresh water to New Plymouth, the principal place in 
the country Pawtuxet, so called in their "octroye"^ 
from His Majesty in England. New Plymouth lies 
in a large bay to the north of Cape Cod, or Mallabaer, 
east and west from the said point of the Cape, which 
can be easily seen in clear weather. Directly before 
the begun town lies a sand bank ^ about twenty paces 
broad, whereon the sea breaks violently, with an 
easterly and northeasterly wind. On the north side 

^ Manomet, now corrupted to Monument. 
^ East entrance to Narragansett Bay. 

' Octroi (Latin auctoritas, authority) originally meant any ordinance 
authorized by a sovereign. 
* Plymouth Beach. 



120 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

there lies a small island,^ where one must run close 
along in order to come before the town; then the 
ships run behind that bank ^ and lie in a very good 
roadstead. The bay is very full of fish of cod; so 
that the Governor before named has told me that 
when the people have a desire for fish, they send out 
two or three persons in a sloop, whom they remunerate 
for their trouble, and who bring them in three or four 
hours time, as much fish as the whole community 
require for a whole day; and they muster about fifty 
families. 

At the south side of the town there flows down a 
small river ^ of fresh water, very rapid, but shallow, 
which takes its rise from several lakes in the land 
above, and there empties into the sea ; where in April 
and the beginning of May there come so many herring 
from the sea that want to ascend that rivfer that it is 
quite surprising. This river the English have shut 
in with planks, and in the middle with a little door, 
which slides up and down, and at the sides with trellis- 
work through which the water has its course, but 
which they can also close with slides. At the mouth 
they have constructed it with planks, like an eel-pot 
with wings, where in the middle is also a sliding door, 
and with trellis work at the sides, so that between the 
two there is a square pool into which the fish aforesaid 
come swimming in such shoals in order to get up above, 
where they deposit their spawn, that at one tide there 
are ten thousand to twelve thousand fish in it, which 
they shut off in the rear at the ebb, and close up the 
trellises above, so that no more water comes in ; then 
the water runs out through the lower trellises, and 

1 Saquish, ^ The beach. ^ Town Brook, 



IN THE NEW WORLD 121 

they draw out the fish with baskets, each according 
to the land he cultivates, and carry them to it, de- 
positing in each hill three or four fishes ; and in these 
they plant their maize, which grows as luxuriantly 
therein as though it were the best manure in the world ; 
and if they do not lay this fish therein, the maize will 
not grow, such is the nature of the soil. 

New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill, stretching 
east toward the sea-coast, with a broad street about a 
cannon-shot of eight hundred feet long ^ leading down 
the hill, with a crossing ^ in the middle, northward to 
the rivulet and southward to the land.^ The houses 
are constructed of hewn planks, with gardens also 
enclosed behind and at the sides with hewn planks, 
so that their houses and courtyards are arranged in 
very good order, with a stockade against a sudden 
attack ; and at the ends of the streets there are three 
wooden gates. In the centre, on the cross street, 
stands the Governor's house, before which is a square 
enclosure upon which four patereros [steenstucken] * 
are moynted, so as to flank along the streets. 

Their farms are not so good as ours, because they 
are more stony ^ and consequently not so suitable 
for the plough. They apportion their land according 
as each has means to contribute to the Eighteen 
Thousand Guilders which they have promised to 
those who had sent them out ; whereby they had 
their freedom without rendering an account to any 
one ; only if the King should choose to send a Governor 
General, they would be obliged to acknowledge him as 
sovereign chief. 

^Thls distance is 1155 feet. ^ / g^ "^ street crossing." 

^The actual bearings are just the reverse. 

^ Little cannon. ^ He probably meant gravelly. 



122 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

The maize seed which they do not require for their 
own use is delivered over to the Governor at three 
guilders the bushel, who in his turn sends it in sloops 
to the north ^ for the trade in skins among the savages ; 
they reckon one bushel of maize against one pound of 
beaver's skin ; in the first place, a division is made 
according to what each has contributed, and they are 
credited for the amount in the account of what each 
has to contribute yearly toward the deduction of his 
obligation. Then with the remainder they purchase 
what next they require, and which the Governor takes 
care to provide each year. They have better means 
of living than ourselves, because they have the fish so 
abundant before their doors. There are also many 
birds, such as geese, herons, and cranes, and other 
small-legged birds which are in great abundance there 
in the winter. 

The tribes in their neighborhood . . . are better 
conducted than ours, because the English give them 
the example of better ordinances and a better life; 
and who — also, to a certain degree, give them laws 
by means of the respect they from the very first have 
established amongst them. 

One great service which De Rasieres did for 
the Colonists, a service which strengthened their 
already-established friendly relations with the 
Indians, was that he taught them the use of 
wampum (or sewan), as money. The impression 
has gone out that these wampum beads were 
mere gewgaws of no more value than so many 
pebbles picked up on the shore, but this is not 

1 The Kemiebec region. 



IN THE NEW WORLD 123 

true. They had no intrinsic value Hke gold and 
silver and copper and iron; but each bead on 
the string represented a certain amount of labor, 
and this labor gave it worth. Wampum indeed 
became a real currency. Made for the most 
part of the shells of the round clam, which had 
to be as definitely manufactured as our silver 
or gold coins of to-day have to be, it is interesting 
to find the process of making it thus described : 

"The shell was broken into small pieces which 
clipped to a somewhat regular form were then 
drilled, ground to a rounded shape and finally 
polished." The Dutch had already learned how 
to make very beautiful wampum, and the Pil- 
grims bought fifty pounds worth of it from De 
Rasieres. (Three of the purple beads which were 
twice the value of the white ones were equivalent 
to a penny.) 

Having a medium of exchange with which to 
traffic with the natives was a great advantage in 
the business dealings of the settlers. With their 
new currency, their fresh reorganization, their 
definite knowledge of just what they had to do, 
and with the fund of valuable experience which 
they had accumulated during the seven years 
already spent in the wilderness, they were now 
able to face life with a good heart ; and they 
never again were quite so near starvation as in 
the first black years which Pory, for publicity 
purposes, viewed through rose-colored glasses. 
By 1646, in spite of enormous handicaps and 



124 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

difficulties, they had paid all their obligations 
to their English backers ! 

Their main source of income now was no longer 
fur trading with the Indians, but the exportation 
of lumber and cattle raising. In the Charity^ 
which landed in Plymouth in March, 1624, there 
arrived a bull and three heifers, which Bradford 
records as "the first beginning of any cattle of 
that kind in the land." These newcomers to 
the settlement were placed under the care of a 
keeper within the palisade and soon grew to be 
*'as fatt as need be." The following year four 
black heifers were added to the herd. These 
animals loomed so large in early Plymouth his- 
tory that three of them are embalmed in Brad- 
ford's pages as Raghorn, the Smooth-horned 
Heifer, and the Blind Heifer. Nothing is more 
interesting in the subsequent history of the 
Colony, indeed, than the way in which poultry, 
cattle, and "the cattle division" recur as im- 
portant factors in the life of the day. For soon 
there were lambs, and swine and goats as well 
as a fairly plentiful number of chickens. On 
January 30, 1628 (N. S.), Edward Winslow sold 
his family's six-thirteen-interest-in-the-red-cow to 
Captain Standish for five pounds, ten shillings 
in corn. The same day Pierce sold his share 
and Clarke's to Standish for two ewe lambs, 
thus giving us the first intimation that there 
were any sheep in Plymouth. 

The Colony was now prospering steadily, and 



IN THE NEW WORLD 125 

it continued to prosper. Naturally census figures 
of these early days are not to be obtained. But 
when, in 1643, the four colonies of Massachusetts, 
Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed 
a Confederation called "the unity of Colonies 
of New England" for the purpose of cooperation 
in Indian affairs and in matters of war", we know 
from the number of soldiers who were apportioned 
according to population that there were twenty- 
three thousand five hundred white people in the 
four colonies altogether, some twenty-three hun- 
dred of whom had been born in England. At 
this time New England had twelve thousand 
neat cattle, three thousand sheep, a thousand 
acres of orchards and gardens, and fifteen thou- 
sand acres under general tillage. Things were 
definitely looking up at Plymouth, and the Pil- 
grims never saw really hard times again from 
economic causes. 

The thing of greatest value in early Plymouth 
was of course land. Actual ownership in this 
was impossible at first because the title was vested 
in the Adventurers until 1629, and then until 
1640 in Bradford. It finally reached the whole 
body of freemen as a corporation, — though not 
as individuals, — in 1640. Previous to this year 
the vast majority of people did not own land, 
but possessed instead temporary rights of oc- 
cupancy, which had been assigned to them by 
the Governor and assistants and then, as the 
towns were organized, by the town authorities. 



126 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

It would almost go without saying that the alio 
merit of land speedily became the most importan 
event of the Pilgrim year. It had far-reachin; 
value, too, as a means of making Plymouth ui 
attractive to those whom the Pilgrims desirea 
not to have among them. 

The leaders controlled this land and distributed 
it as seemed to them best. To the group of from 
eight to fifteen among them whom they regarded 
as most worthy to be thus rewarded, they allotted 
the best house lots, the best meadows for hay, 
and the most desirable fishing rights. To a 
second group which contained the remainder 
of the church members, other good and on the 
whole desirable grants were made. Potential 
church members, godly and discreet persons, 
called Inhabitants, who could be trusted to 
pursue agriculture as a calling under such re- 
strictions as the leaders deemed necessary, were 
also given land. Below all these, however, were 
a fourth group — the unprivileged — those who 
were not considered as possible church members, 
or citizens, who received no land, had no right 
to cut hay on the Town Meadows, and were 
obliged to work as directed. These included all 
temporary residents of the Colony, called So- 
journers, people on probation pending a decision 
by the leaders as to their desirability for Colony 
residence, and the bond servants, servants, ap- 
prentices, minor children, and slaves.^ 

^ The allusion here is to a few Indians, mostly captives taken in war. 



IN THE NEW WORLD 127 

The Inhabitants who were permitted to till 
le soil might graduate into the Freeman class; 
.' one of the utterly unprivileged might become 
1 Inhabitant at the discretion of the leaders. 
jL'his was where the matter of the land allotment 
came in. A worthy man would be given an allot- 
ment promptly, but those regarded as undesirable 
were passed over when the allotment was made 
and so automatically were made to understand 
that they were non grata at Plymouth. 

In that none of the modern methods of accumu- 
lating great wealth were at this period established 
it Plymouth — nothing approaching "industry" 
in the twentieth-century sense of the word — no 
)ne acquired much wealth. Wills of the period 
nake this very plain. But the Pilgrims did 
succeed in paying off their indebtedness and in 
iccumulating besides what would have ranked 
n England at the time as a comfortable estate 
'or the farmer or artisan class. Miles Standish, 
'or instance, who had landed without property 
n 1620, as a paid employee of the merchants, 
md in 1631 migrated to Duxbury with very 
ittle in his possession except one cow, died in 
L656 worth one hundred and forty pounds in 
and and buildings and £358 7 shillings in per- 
onal property. His will sheds not a little light 
»n the life of the period, and is also of considerable 
listoric interest. It reads as follows : 

The last will and testament of Capt. Miles Standish 
jrent. exhibited before the Court held at Plymouth, 



128 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the 4th of May, 1657, on the oath of Capt. James 
Cudworth and ordered to bee registered as followeth : 
Given under my hand this March the 7th, 1655, 
Witnesseth these Presents that I Myles Standish 
Senr. of Duxburrow being in pfect memory yet de- 
seased in my body, and knowing the fraile estate of 
man in his best estate I do make this to be my last 
will and testament in manner and form following : 

1. My Will is that out of my whole estate my 
funerall charges to beetaken out & my body to bee- 
buried in decent manner and if I die at Duxburrow 
my body to be laid as near as conveniently may bee 
to my two dear Daughters Lora Standish my daughter 
and Mary Standish my daughter in law. 

2. My will is that out of the remaining pte of my 
whole estate that all my just and lawful debts which 
I now owe or at the day of my death may owe bee 
paied. 

3. Out of what remains according to the order of 
this Gov'ment : my will is that my dear and loveing / 
wife Barbara Standish shall have the third pte. j % 

4. I have given to my son Josias Standish upon| ' 
his marriage one young horse five sheep and two 
heffors which I must upon that contract of marriage 
make forty pounds yett not knowing whether the 
estate will bear it at present ; my will is that the 
resedue remaine in the whole stocke and that every 
one of my four sons viz Allexander Standish Myles 
Standish Josias Standish and Charles Standish may 
have forty pounds apeece if not that they may have 
proportionable to ye remaining pte bee it more or less. 

5. My will is that my eldest son Allexander shall 
have a double share in land. 








SAMPLER NOW IN PILGRIM HAIL. IM.^ \I<H 111. W ROl'GHT BY MILES 
STANDISHS DAIGHTER 

It reads: "Lorea StandLsh is my name. 

Lord, guide my hart that I may doe thy wi , 
Also fill my hands with such convenient skill. 
As mav conduce to virtue void of shame; 
And I will give the glory to thy name." 



IN THE NEW WORLD 129 

6. My will is that soelong as they live single that 
the whole be in ptenership betwixt them. 

7. I doe ordaine and make my dearly beloved wiSe 
Barbara Standish Allexander Standish Myles Standish 
and Josias Standish joint Executors of this my last 
will & testament. 

8. I doe by this my will make and appoint my 
loving friends Mr. Timothy Hatherley and Capt. 
James Cudworth supervissors of this my last will 
and that they will be pleased to doe the office of chris- 
tian love to be healpful to my poor wife and children 
by their christian counsell and advisse and if any 
difference should arise which I hope will not, my will 
is that my said supervissors shall determine the same, 
and that they see that my poor wife shall have as 
comfortable maintenance as my poor state will beare 
the whole tinie of her life which if you my loveing 
friends please to doe though neither they nor I shall 
be able to recompenc, I doe not doubt but the Lord 
will; 

By me Miles Standish further my will is that Marcye 
Robinson whom I tenderly love for her grandfather's 
sacke shall have three pounds in something to goe for- 
ward for her two years after my decease which my will 
is my overseers shall see performed. 

Further my will is that my servant John Irish Junr 
have forty shillings more than his covenant which will 
appear upon the Towne Book alwaies provided that 
he continew till the time he covenanted be expired 
in the service of my executors or of any of them with 
their joint concert. 

By me 
March 7 1655. Myles Standish. 



130 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

9. I give unto my son and heire apparent Allexander 
Standish all my lands as heire apparrent by lawful 
decent in Ormstick Borseonge Wrightington Maudsley 
Newburrow Crawston and in the Isle of Man and 
given to mee as right heire by lawful decent but surrep- 
titiously detained from me my Great Grandfather 
being a 2cond or younger brother from the house of 
Standish of Standish. 

By mee 
March 7 1655. Myles Standish. 

Witnessed by mee — James Cudworth.^ 

The Will of Doctor Samuel Fuller, the Colony 
physician, a much longer document,^ is likewise 
interesting as showing how a professional man 
was able, even under the untoward conditions of 
colonization on a bleak New England shore, to 
make himself economically comfortable.^ 

WYNSLOW GOVNr. 

New Plymouth 
1633. 
A true Coppy of the last will & Testm of 
Samuell ffuller the elder as it was proved 
in publick Court the 28th of Oct in the 
ninth yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne 
Lord Charles by the grace of God King of 
Engl. Scotl. ffr, & Irel. Defender of the 
ffaith &c. 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, Book of Wills. Vol. 2, pp. 37, 38. 

2 Reprinted by permission from the Mayflower Descendant. Vol. I. 

' On the other hand Stephen Hopkins, who owned the chief inn or hotel 
of the place, and was always getting into trouble because he broke the laws 
of the Colony, left in cash when he died — sixpence. 



IN THE NEW WORLD 131 

I Samuell ffuller thelder being sicke & weake but by 
the mercie of God in perfect memory ordaine this my 
last will & Testmt. And first of all I bequeath my 
soule to God & my body to the earth untill the resurec- 
con Item I doe bequeath the edueacon of my children 
to my Brother Will Wright & his wife, onely that my 
daughter Mercy be & remaine wth goodwife Wallen 
so long as she will keepe her at a reasonable charge. 
But if it shall please God to recover my wife out of 
her weake estate of sicknes then my children to be 
with her or disposed by her. Also whereas there is a 
childe comitted to my charge called Sarah Converse, '- 5 
my wife dying as afore I desire my Brother Wright 
may have the bringing up of her. And if he refuse 
then I ccmmend her to my loving neighbour & brother 
in Christ Thomas Prence desiring that whosoever of 
them receive her pforme the duty of a step ffather 
unto her & bring her up in the ffeare of God as their 
owne wch was a charge laid upon me pr her sick ffather 
when he freely bestowed her upon me & wch I require 
of them. Item whereas Eliz. Cowles was committed 
to my edueacon by her ffather & Mother still living 
at Charles Towne, my will is that she be conveniently 
apprelled & returne to her father or mother or either 
of them. And for George ffoster being placed with ^s 
me upon the same termes by his prents still living at 
Sagos my will is that he be restored to his Mother 
likewise. Item I give unto Samuell my son my howse 
& lands at the Smeltriver to him & his heires for ever, 
Item \wor'n\ will is that my howse & garden at towne 
be sold & all my moveables there & at the Smeltriver 
(except my Cattle) togeather wth the prnt Croppe of 
Corne there standing by my Overseers hereafter to 



132 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

be menconed, except such as they shall thinke meet 
I in the prnt educacon of my two children Samuell & 
Mercy my debts being first pd out of them, the over- 
plus to be disposed of towards the encrease of my stock 
of Cattle for their good at the discretion of my over- 
seers. Item I give two Acres of land that fell unto 
me by lott on the Sowth side the Towne adjoyning to 
the Acres of mr Isaack Allerton to Samuell my son. 
Also two other Acres of land wch were given me by 
Edward Bircher scituate & being at Strawberry hill 
if mr Roger Williams refuse to accept of them as 
formerly he hath done. Also one othr Acre bt mr 
Heeks his Acres neer the Reed pond, All wch I give 
to the said Samuell & his heires for ever. It. my will 
is that my Cozen Samuell goe freely away wth his 
Stock of Cattle & Swine wthout any further recconing 
wch swine are the halfe of six sowes Six Hogges one 
boare & fowr shotes Also one Cow & one heyfer. Item 
my will is that not onely the other halfe afore menconed 
but allso all other mine owne propr stock of Swine be 
sold wth other my moveables for the use before ex- 
pressed my best hogg wch I would have killed this 
winter for the prnt comfort of my children. It. 
whereas I have disposed of my children to my Brother 
Will Wright and Priscilla his wife my will is that in 
case my wife die he enter upon my house & land at 
the Smelt River, & also my cattle not disposed on 
"* together with my two servts Thomas Symons & Robt 
Cowles for the remainder of their several termes to 
be employed for the good of my children he being 
allowed for their charg vizt. my children what my 
Overseers shall thinke meet. But if in case my said 
Brother Will Wright or Priscilla his wife die then my 



IN THE NEW WORLD 133 

said children Samiiell & Mercy together wth the said 
joynt charge committed to the said Will & Priscilla 
be void except my Overseers or the survivors of them 
shall think meet. To whos [ivorn] godly care in such 
case I leave them to be disposed of elsewhere as the 
Law shall direct them. By cattle not disposed on to 
be employed for the good of my children I meane three 
Cowes & two steere calves Six old ewes & two ewe 
lambs two old wethers & three wether lambs together 
with such overplus upon the sale of my goods before 
expressed as my Overseers shall add heereunto. It. I 
give out of this stock of Cattle the first Cow calfe that 
my Browne Cow shall have to the Church of God at 
Plymouth to be employed by the Deacon or Deacons 
of the said Church for the good of the said Church 
at the oversight of the Ruling Elders. Item I give 
to my sister Alice Bradford twelve shillings to buy 
her a paire of gloves. Item whatsoever is due unto 
me from Capt. Standish I give unto his Children. It. 
that a pr of gloves of 5sh be bestowed on mr John 
Wynthrop Govr of the Massachusetts. It. I give 
unto my Brother Wright aforesaid one cloath suit 
not yet fully finished lying in my trunk at Towne 
wch I give notwthstanding my wife survive. It. 
whereas Capt John Endecott oweth me two pownds 
of Beaver I give it to his sonne. It is my will that 
when my children come to age of discretion that my 
Overseers make a full valuacon of that Stock of Cattle 
& the increase thereof, & that it be equally divided 
between my children. And if any die in the mean- 
time the whole to go to the survivor or survivors. It. 
my will is that they be ruled by my Overseers in 
marriage. Also I would have them enjoy that smale 



134 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

porcon the Lord shall give them when my Overseers 
thinke them to be of fit discretion & not at any set 
time or appointmt of yeares. It. whereas my will is 
that my Overseers shall let out that stock of Cattle 
wch shall be bought wth the Overplus of my goods 
to halves to such as shall be as well carefull as honest 
men. My will is that my brother Wright have the 
refusall of them. It. I give unto John Jenny & John 
Wynslow each of them a paire of gloves of five shillings. 
It. I give unto Mrs Heecks the full sum of twenty 
shillings. It. I give to old mr William Brewster my 
best hat & band wch I h[i^^orn] never wore. Item 
my will is that if my children die that then my stock 
be thus distributed, ffirst that what care or paines 
or charge hath been by any about my children be 
fully recompensed. Next at the discretion of the 
Overseers I thus bequeath the rest viz so as it may 
be redowned to the Governing Elder or Elders of this 
Church at Plymouth aforesaid & towards the helping 
of such psons as are members of the same & are [il- 
legible] as my Overseers shall thinke meet. It. I give 
to Rebecca Prence 2sh 5d to buy her a paire of gloves. 
It. my will is that in case my sonne Samuell & other 
my children die before such time as they are fitt to 
enter upon my land for inheritance that then my 
kinsman Sam. ffuller now in the howse wth me enjoy 
wtsoever lands I am now possessed of except my dwell- 
ing howse at town or whatsoever shall be due to me 
or them. It. I give to him my Rufflet Cloake & my 
stuff e sute I now weare It. I institute my son Samuell 
my Executor, and because he is young & tender I 
enjoyne him to be wholly ordered by Edw Wynslow 
mr Wil Bradford & mr Tho. Prence whom I make his 



IN THE NEW WORLD 135 

Overseers & the Overseers of this my last will & Testmt. 
so often menconed before in the same. And for their 
paines I give to each of them twenty shillings apeece. 
It. I give to Mercy my daughter one Bible wth a black 
Cover wth Bezaes notes. It. I give all the rest of my 
bookes to my sonne Samuell wch I desire my Brother 
Wright Will safely preserve for him. It my will is 
that when my daughter Mercy is fitt to goe to scole 
that mrs Heecks may teach her as well as my sonne. 
It. whatsoever mr Roger Williams is indebted to me 
upon my booke for phisick I freely give him. Last 
of all whereas my wife is sicke and weake I have dis- 
posed of my children to others my will is that if she 
recover that she have the educacon of them & that 
the other gifts & legacies I have given may be pformed. 
And if in case any of my Overseers or all of them (3) 
die before my children be judged by them of age of 
discretion then my desire is they will before such time 
when they dispose of their owne affaires depute some 
other of the Church to pforme this duty of care & love 
towards my children, wch I allow and binde my chil- 
dren to obedience to them as before. In witnes that 
this is my last will & Test I have set to my hand & 
scale the 30th of July Anno 1633. 

Samuell ffuller 

Memorand that whereas the 
widow Ring committed the 
Oversight of her sonne An- 
drew to me at her death, 
my will is that mr Tho 
Prence one of my Overseers 
take the charge of him & 
see that he be brought up 



136 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

in the ffeare of the Lord & See that he sustaine no 

wrong by any. 

Witness heerunto 

Robt Heeks 
John Wynslow 

See his Inventory, Fol. 22. {This line is in a different 

hand.) 

A note of such debts as Sam ffuller 
acknowledged upon his death bed, at 
the making of the foresaid will. 

I owe to the Acco Company in the Massachusets 
six or ten shillings if ffr Johnson have not pd it. 

It. I owe mr John Winthrop one hogsh of Corne 
for lines I bought of him but doubt whether pd or 
not. If he demand it, pay it. 

It. I owe him for a Sow of leade except X sh wch 
I have pd as appeareth pr receipt. 

It. whereas Henry Wood demands an old debt 
due at Leyden I desire that wtsoever he demand as 
due debt be pd by my overseers he dealing faithfully. 

It. whereas I have an herball belonging to Joh. 
Chew of Plymouth in old Engl. I desire when the price 
is known he may be pd. 

The -allusion in this will of Doctor Fuller's to 
gloves for his sister, for Rebecca Prence, and for 
certain public functionaries, indicates that in 
some particulars at any rate funerals at Plymouth 
were getting to be impressive occasions. In the 
Bay Colony mourning rings as well as gloves, 
for the mourners and pallbearers, played an im- 
portant part. I find no reference in early Plym- 



IN THE NEW WORLD 137 

outh wills to such use of rings. Nor do I find 
anything which leads me to believe that it was 
the custom here to present the person in charge 
of the funeral with a fine scarf of white linen 
which he afterwards made into a shirt and wore 
as a memorial to the deceased. In other words, 
Plymouth had by no means come to the point 
where it "enjoyed its funerals" as the Bay Colony 
early came to do, — and as Sir Walter Scott says 
his father always did. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HOW THEY MET AND OVERCAME THE INDIANS 

Some one has suggested that if the American 
of the twentieth century is able in no other way 
to keep clear in his mind the distinction between 
the Pilgrims and the Puritans, he can do so by 
recalling the old joke that when the Puritans 
came over they fell on their knees, — while the 
Pilgrims fell on the aborigines. This is not a 
very good joke, and it is exceedingly misleading as 
history. For as a matter of fact the Pilgrims 
were at all times scrupulously honest and kindly 
in their relations with the Indians. They could 
strike hard when they had to ; and that they occa- 
sionally had to we shall clearly see. But Robert 
Cushman, who (in 1622) printed one of the early 
documents ^ concerning the Pilgrim republic, testi- 
fied categorically concerning the justice and be- 
nevolence with which the Colony at the beginning 
treated the natives. 

Governor Josiah Winslow, in 1676, declared in 
his report to the Federal Commissioners: "I 
think I can clearly say that before these present 

^ " Reasons and Considerations touching the Lawfidness of Removing out 
of England into the Parts of America." 



MEETING THE INDIANS 139 

troubles broke out [King Philip's War], the 
English did not possess one foot of land in this 
Colony but what was fairly obtained by honest 
purchase of the Indian proprietors. Nay, because 
some of our people are of a covetous disposition 
and the Indians are in their straits easily prevailed 
with to part with their lands, we first made a 
law that none should purchase or receive of gift 
any land of the Indians without the knowledge 
and allowance of our Court . . . and if any time 
they have brought complaints before us, they have 
had justice impartial and speedy, so that our own 
people have frequently complained that we erred on 
the other hand by showing them over much favor." 

The practice of the settlers was indeed to follow 
literally the instructions given by the first Gov- 
ernor of the New England Company to Governor 
Endicott in 1629 : "If any of the Salvages pretend 
right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands 
granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to 
purchase their title, that we may avoid the least 
scruple of intrusion. Particularly publish that 
no wrong or injury be offered to the natives." 

It is curious, as one reads ^ the accounts of the 
shore expeditions made by the Pilgrims during 
their very first days in New England, to see how 
long it was before they actually encountered any 
Indians at all. In their first exploring trip when 
they went ashore at Provincetown (Wednesday, 
November 15-25), and wearing their cumbrous 

^ Chiefly in "Mourt's Relation." 



140 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

armor, tramped up and down in search of the best 
possible place to make a settlement, the only 
Indians whom they saw were five men accompanied 
by a dog, who at sight of them took themselves 
off promptly into the woods. For about ten 
miles the Pilgrims trailed these savages ; and when 
night fell and found them far from the place at 
which they had come ashore, they were obliged 
to camp without having yet overtaken them. 
Next morning they followed the track of the 
Indians around the head of a long creek but still 
discovered neither the savages nor their houses. 
What they did discover, however, was a wonderful 
spring. And here in Truro they first partook 
of New England's fresh water. "We . . . sat 
us down and drunk our first New England water 
with as much delight as ever we drunk drink in 
all our lives." Then they marched south to the 
shore, built a fire as a signal of safety to the ship, 
and continued their journey. Bucks and par- 
tridges, wild geese and ducks they came upon in 
this first exploration, — but no Indians. 

Ten days later, a second exploring party was 
organized — still with the Indians in mind — 
consisting this time of thirty -four men, ten of whom 
were sailors. Part of the group was to go along 
the shore in the shallop, part to be taken to the 
land by the long boat and to travel on foot. But 
a terrible storm sprang up, the shallop could not 
keep the water and had to harbor almost at once 
for the night, and though the land party went 



MEETING THE INDIANS 141 

on some six or seven miles, the weather was so 
bleak that many "tooke the originall of their 
death here ... it blowed and did snow all that 
day and night, and froze with all." The next 
day broke fine and all went aboard the shallop 
and sailed to Pamet River, a creek they had 
formerly noted. There the men landed, marching 
along the river for four or five miles till night over- 
took them. There was great excitement when, 
on the third day, this party found decided traces 
of Indians not far from their camp in a canoe, a 
bottle of oil, and several heaps of corn and beans. 
They came also on a grave in which were the 
skeletons of a man and a child embalmed in a 
fine red powder and surrounded by bowls and 
trays and dishes and trinkets. Other evidences 
of previous inhabitants were found in the form 
of two houses built of young sapling trees bent, 
and with both ends stuck into the ground. These 
were covered almost entirely with thick mats 
with a wide hole at the top left for a chimney. 
Inside were finer and newer mats and cooking 
utensils, including earthen pots, an English pail 
or bucket and baskets of every kind. But again 
the Pilgrims were forced to return to the Mayflower 
without having met any Indians. In their absence 
on shore an event of great importance had hap- 
pened on the ship. A son had been born ^ to 

^ This interesting occurrence, the birth of the first English child to draw 
breath in New England, had Provincetown for its background, of course. 
For the Pilgrims were still anchored near that point, not having yet decided 
where they should make a permanent settlement. 



142 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Mr. and Mrs. White, to whom was given the 
appropriate name of Peregrine. 

An advantageous harbor was thought to he 
near Manomet which was discernible on the 
western horizon, and it was now decided that a 
new expedition should follow the shore and see 
what there offered in the way of a safe and promis- 
ing settlement. So with this objective a third 
exploring expedition set out. 

Now it was that the Pilgrims had their first 
encounter with the Indians. They had coasted 
along for six or seven leagues without yet coming 
to either river or creek when they saw a sandy 
stretch of land jutting out and decided to sail for 
it. They were tremendously excited to discover 
on this shore, busy over some black object, ten 
or twelve Indians, — who ran away as the boat 
approached ! Landing for the night, the Pilgrims 
barricaded themselves and prepared for what- 
ever might befall. Towards midnight they were 
roused by horrible noises which they took to be 
howls of wolves, but as soon as day broke, the 
outcries became so clear that there was no mistak- 
ing them. 

Soon the Indians were upon them with their 
arrows ! (Note that the savages conducted the 
offensive.) The Englishmen were unprepared 
when the attack actually came. Most of them 
had carried their armor and guns down to the 
v/ater's edge and were making ready for sailing. 
Only Standish, Bradford, and a couple more were 



MEETING THE INDIANS 143 

able to defend the encampment. But this they 
did effectively, and in a few minutes the Indians 
were driven off. Yet not until after the chief 
had stood well forward under a tree and deliber- 
ately shot at the Pilgrim leaders with his arrows. 
And not until the Pilgrims had, quite as deliber- 
ately, aimed at the chief and after three misses 
hit the tree above his head. "Whereupon," we 
read, "he gave a great 'shrike' and made off as 
fast as he could." No one was injured; but the 
First Encounter, as the Pilgrims named this brush 
with the savages, was now a fact of history. 
Later they discovered that the attacking party 
belonged to the Nauset Tribe, from which Thomas 
Hunt had kidnapped his slaves,^ and that it was 
this wicked treatment which explained the hos- 
tility the Indians displayed to the new band of 
white men. 

All day, after this thrilling interlude of warfare 
with "the aborigines", the Pilgrim explorers 
sailed along the coast without discovering either 
a harbor or a creek. In the afternoon snow and 
rain and high waves rocked their little boat most 
dangerously. They broke a rudder, put on so 
much sail that they split their mast in three 
pieces and were all but wrecked on the rocks. 
Finally, they came under the lee of a small island 

^ Hunt was master of one of the ships in Captain John Smith's 1614 
voyage of exploration. An unprincipled scoundrel, he tried first to rob 
Smith of his plans and leave him on a desert island to starve; then he 
kidnapped a party of Indians and took them to Spain, where he sold them 
into slavery. 



144 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

(Clark's Island) and there, utterly exhausted 
with fatigue, spent that night and the two suc- 
ceeding days, one of which was Sunday. 

We shall come back to their subsequent activ- 
ities as they sounded Plymouth Harbor, landed 
on Plymouth Rock, and set up civilized life in the 
New World. But our present concern is with 
their further dealing with the Indians. What of 
that? 

One day, about the middle of March, there 
came walking down the principal street of the 
Plymouth settlement a solitary Indian who ad- 
vanced boldly and called out in English to them, 
*' Welcome!" Their visitor was entirely naked 
except for a leathern girdle, and he carried only 
a bow and two arrows. He walked straight up to 
the common house, quite as if he were a regular 
visitor, and started to enter. When they stopped 
him, he explained in broken English that he did 
not belong in that region but was a sachem of 
Monhegan, the island off the Maine coast between 
the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers, and that he had 
learned his English from Englishmen there engaged 
in fishing. He proved that he was telling the 
truth by giving the names of most of the captains 
who fished on the Maine coast. He added that 
he had come to Cape Cod with Captain Dermer, 
the year before, and had remained eight months on 
a visit. He could reach home by sea in one day 
with a good breeze, he said, but it took him five 
days to go by land. He proceeded to describe 



MEETING THE INDIANS 145 

the native tribes far and near, their sachems and 
their strength, and he told them that his own 
name was Samoset. 

A sharp wind arising, the Pilgrims offered their 
guest the protection of a horseman's coat which he 
accepted with gratitude. Then he asked for 
beer and they took him to dinner, serving him 
with butter and cheese, something which they 
called pudding — could it have been a species of 
the famous Yorkshire pudding ? — and duck. 
None of this surprised him at all ; he was ap- 
parently quite used to English fare and liked it. 
After dinner he proceeded to tell them a great 
deal about the Indians of the district, particularly 
about the tribe of their own neighborhood, which 
had died in a plague four years ago. The Indian 
name of the region thereabouts was Patexet, it 
appears, a name meaning "little bay" or "little 
falls." The Indians living nearest to this place 
now were Massasoit's tribe, numbering about 
sixty warriors. 

So Samoset talked on and, night coming down 
ere he had shown any inclination to leave, his 
hosts began to wonder how they should most 
safely entertain him. At first they thought to 
lodge him aboard the Mayflower, but when they 
found they could not get the shallop across the 
flats to the big ship, still anchored in the bay, 
they quartered him with Stephen Hopkins, watch- 
ing him the while with care. The next day 
(Saturday) they sent him happily off with a knife. 



146 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

a bracelet, and a ring, he declaring that he would 
return in a little while with beaver, — a kind of 
fur then unknown to the English. 

Two weeks later, on Sunday as luck would have 
it, Samoset called again, accompanied this time 
by five tall savages. Again the Pilgrims proffered 
liberal entertainment which the Indians sought 
to repay by an exhibition of dancing and singing, 
thus embarrassing not a little their Sabbath- 
observing hosts. Samoset's comrades were far 
better apparelled than he had been on his first 
visit. Each had a deerskin hung on his shoulders 
and wore long hose of dressed deerskin. Their 
hair was cut short in front, but fell as far as the 
shoulders behind. One had his front hair done 
up on a feather in a fan shape ; another wore a 
fox-tail pendant. The chief had on his left arm 
a wildcat's skin, which seemed to be the Indian 
leader's badge of authority, much as the modern 
white man is distinguished by an epaulet. The 
chief of the party on this occasion carried a pouch 
of tobacco, from which he occasionally smoked, 
or gave some for smoking to the others. The 
English called this "drinking" tobacco by reason 
of the deep inhalations by which the smoke was 
drawn into the lungs. 

Samoset's third visit fell on a fine spring day. 
The Pilgrims were assembled to transact business 
important to the Colony, when again they were 
interrupted by this attentive caller. He had in 
his wake one who was destined to become an 



MEETING THE INDIANS 147 

invaluable friend of the Colony. This was Tis- 
quantum, as Winslow calls him ; Squanto, accord- 
ing to Bradford's writings. Squanto was the 
only surviving native of Patexet. He had been 
carried to England by Captain Thomas Hunt in 
1614 and so had escaped the plague. In England 
he had found a home for three years with Gorges 
and afterwards with John Slaney, of London, mer- 
chant and treasurer of the Newfoundland Com- 
pany. Then he was sent back to Newfoundland, 
from which place Captain Dermer took him again 
to England, bringing him back with him on the 
famous voyage of 1619 and 1620, when the two 
touched Plymouth. On this occasion Dermer 
and Tisquanto had traveled inland as far as 
Middleborough and had a friendly interview 
with Massasoit and his brother, but had found 
these people so hostile, by reason of Hunt's wicked- 
ness, that they would have slain the captain but 
for Squanto's intervention. The two Indians 
brought the startling news, on this spring morning 
of 1621, that Massasoit, the sachem of the tribes 
of Pokanoket, was now on his way with his warriors 
to pay a ceremonial visit ! Naturally this intelli- 
gence created a great stir in the settlement. We 
can imagine there was some bustling to and fro 
as the Pilgrims prepared for their first formal 
meeting with the natives. 

In about an hour Massasoit, followed by a train 
of sixty men, appeared on Watson's Hill. Some 
hesitation ensued on both sides, because, while 



148 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the colonists were not willing that their governor 
should venture among the savages, the savages 
were no more desirous of letting their chief visit 
an armed village. Finally the dilemma was 
solved by Squanto's bringing from the Grand 
Sachem a request that a messenger come over and 
confer with him. Edward Winslow was chosen 
for this important mission and, armed with a 
pair of knives and a chain with a jewel on it, to 
present to Massasoit, and with a knife and a jl 
jewel to hang in his ear for the chief's brother, 
Quadequina, he made his way up the hill. He 
carried also some provisions. With great im- 
pressiveness he greeted Massasoit in the name of 
King James and desired him to come and speak 
with the Governor, which, after some hesitation 
and the placing of hostages on both sides, the chief 
consented to do. Winslow was left behind, as 
Massasoit, accompanied by twenty warriors with- 
out their bows and arrows, started for the village. 
To meet them Captain Standish and Master 
Allerton, with six musketeers, repaired to the 
passage over Town Brook. When the chief crossed 
the brook the Pilgrim guard saluted him gravely. | 
The two leaders took their places one on each side 
of him and conducted him with great ceremony 
to the street where, in a house not yet quite 
finished, a *' green rugge " and three or four cushions 
had been placed to receive him. Having partaken 
of a hearty meal, Massasoit concluded the following 
Treaty : 




W "H *' 



— ; 60 

c s 



j; ac 





^'-r^ 



«. 




y. - 






MEETING THE INDIANS 149 

1. That neither he, nor any of us, should do hurt 
to any of our people. 

2. And if any of his did hurt to any of ours; he 
should send the offender (to us) that we might punish 
him. 

3. That if any of our tools were taken away, when 
our people were at work, he should cause them to be 
restored; and if any of ours did any harm to any of 
his, we should do the like to them. 

4. If any did unjustly war against him, we would aid 
him. If any did war against us, he should aid us. 

5. He should send his neighbor confederates, to 
certify them of this, that they might not wrong us; 
but might be likewise comprised in the Conditions of 
Peace. 

6. That when their men came to us, they should 
leave their bows and arrows behind them, as we should 
do our pieces when we came to them. 

7. Lastly, that doing this. King James would esteem 
of him as his friend and ally. 

This treaty, made in all sincerity by both 
parties, is one of the most picturesque incidents 
in early American history. The king, sitting 
upon his cushions with a chain of white bone 
beads about his neck, a bag of tobacco hanging 
down behind, and a knife suspended from a string 
resting on his bosom, must have been a great sight. 
His head and face were oiled so that "hee looked 
greasily" and the chronicler tells us that as a 
result of the strong drink served to him, Massasoit 
"sweat all the while after." His followers had 
their faces painted black, red, yellow, or white; 



150 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

some wore skins and some were entirely naked. 
The representatives of the Pilgrims, on the other 
hand, with Governor John Carver at their head, 
though firm and resolute of soul were rather piti- 
fully haggard and emaciated of body as a result 
of their hard experiences of the winter. It would 
not have been hard for the Indians to gain the 
upper hand just at this time. 

When the business of the conference was over, 
the Governor escorted Massasoit back to the 
brook, where they embraced and took a courteous 
farewell. The Pilgrims had taken the precaution 
to retain seven of the Indians as hostages for 
Winslow's safe return and now, when Quadequina, 
the king's brother, came across the rivulet with 
his bodyguard, Winslow still remained behind as 
security. A fine-looking, tall young man, who 
bore himself modestly, Quadequina accepted the 
hospitality of the place with much appreciation, 
though he was obviously greatly frightened by the 
muskets, which, at his request, were laid away. 
When he departed, two of his men wished to 
remain for the night, but it was thought best not 
to allow this. Winslow was then released, as were 
also the native hostages. 

Samoset and Tisquantum spent the night with 
their white friends who kept a sharp lookout, we 
may be sure, inasmuch as Massasoit' s men with 
their families were encamped in the woods only half 
a mile away. This was a wise precaution to take, 
though the Indians were undoubtedly thoroughly 



MEETING THE INDIANS 151 

friendly. Plans had already been made, indeed, 
for them to come in a few days to plant corn south 
of the brook by Watson's Hill and spend the 
summer near their new allies. The next day 
Standish and Allerton visited the king at his 
camp and were entertained with a few groundnuts 
and some tobacco. Then Massasoit and his 
company went their way. 

Voltaire, commenting on William Penn's treaty 
with the Indians, says : *'It was the only one ever 
concluded between savages and Christians that 
was not ratified with an oath, and the only one 
that was never broken ! " Yet here in Plymouth 
a treaty was made, long before Penn was born, 
which was ratified by no oath ; nor was it broken 
during the lifetime of any of the contracting parties. 

Massasoit ruled for some forty years after this 
event, outliving Carver, Bradford, Winslow, 
Brewster, Standish, and Allerton. And he had 
been many years in his grave before the compact 
was violated by his younger son. 

Not only did the Indians keep to the letter of 
this treaty, but they showed themselves con- 
sistently friendly. When the spring came, Squanto 
helped the Pilgrims set corn and instructed them 
how to manure the ground with fish, taught them 
how to tread out eels with their hands and feet, 
and so make the best of the fish which came in 
abundance up the Town Brook; proved himself, 
indeed, an invaluable associate for many years. 

Samoset disappears at this point from Plymouth 



152 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

history. Carver was reelected governor just at 
this time, and his first Indian visitor presumably 
returned to his own tribe near what is now Pema- 
quid Point, Bristol, Maine. We may believe 
that he often visited his white friends but that 
they found no occasion to make formal mention 
of the fact. With Massasoit, to whom he had 
introduced them, Winslow in particular had sub- 
sequent relations of quite embarrassing intimacy. 
Winslow' s introduction to home life among the 
Indians came when, as a means of continuing the 
pleasant relations established with Massasoit by 
the League of Peace and Friendship, he and 
Stephen Hopkins, accompanied by Squanto, were 
sent to make a visit to the chief. As gifts, they 
carried a "Horse-man's coat of red cotton, laced 
with a slight lace" ; and from the Governor they 
bore "a copper chayne, desiring if any Messenger 
should come from him to us, we might know him 
by bringing it with him and harken and give credite 
to his Message accordingly. Also requesting him 
that such as have skins should bring them to us 
and that he would hinder the multitude from 
oppressing us." Not with skins but with their 
presence ; too many Indians had latterly been 
coming to Plymouth for visits. Winslow writes : 

With these presents and message, we set forward 
the 10th June (1621) about 9 a cloeke in the Morning, 
our guide resolving that night to rest at Namaschet 
(near Middleborough) a Town under Massasoit and 
conceived by us to bee very neere because the inhabit- 



MEETING THE INDIANS 153 

ants flocked so thicke upon every slight occasion 
amongst us : but wee found it to bee some fifteene 
English myles. On the way we found some ten or 
twelve men and women and children, which had 
pestered us till wee were wearie of them, perceiving that 
(as the manner of them all is) where victuall is easiliest 
to be got, there they live, especially in the Summer : 
by reason whereof our Bay affording many Lobsters 
they resought every spring tide thither : & now returned 
with us to Namaschet. 

Thither we came about 3 aclocke after noone the 
Inhabitants entertaining us with joy in the best manner 
they could giving us a kinde of bread called by them 
maizium [rudely made from Indian corn] and the spaune 
of Shads which then they got in abundance, insomuch 
as they gave us spoones to eat them, with these they 
boyled musty acorns but of the Shads we eate heartily. 
After this they desired one of our men to shoote at a 
Crow, complaining what damage they sustained in their 
corne by them, who shooting some four score off and 
killing they much admired it. 

Pushing on and lodging in the open fields, 
Winslow and his companion made their way 
through the woods of "Oake Walnutt-tree, Firre, 
Beech and exceeding great Chesstnut-trees " — to 
Massasoit's own town — only to find that the 
chief was not at home. But he was speedily 
sent for, the visitors' guns shot off, at request, as 
a means of salutation, and 

Then he tooke us into his house and set us down by 
him, where having delivered our foresayd Message 
and Presents and having put the Coat on his backe 



154 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and the Chayne about his necke he was not a Httle 
proud to behold himselfe and his men also to see their 
king so bravely attyred. 

For answer to our message he told us we were wel- 
come and he would gladly continue tht Peace and 
Friendship which was between him & us : and for his 
men they should no more pester us as they had done. 
Also that he . . . would help us with corne for feed 
according to our request. 

Following which Massasoit made a redundant 
speech full of self -commendation which "being 
ended he lighted tobacco for us and fell to dis- 
coursing of England & of the King's majestic, 
marveiling that he would live without a wife.^ 
Also he talked of the French-men, bidding us 
not to suffer them to come to Narrohiganset, for 
it was King James, his Countrey and he also 
was King James his man. Late it grew but 
victuals he offered none ; for indeed he had not any, 
being he came so newly home. So we desired to 
go to rest : he Iqyd us on the bed wdth himselfe and 
his wdfe, they at one end and we at the other, it 
being onely plancks layd a foot from the ground 
and a thin Mat upon them. Two more of his 
chiefemen for want of roome pressed by and 
upon us ; so that we were worse weary of our 
lodging then of our journey." 

The next day there were sports and shooting 
but still nothing to eat until about one o'clock, 
when Massasoit brought in two fishes which he 

^ James I of England had become a widower more than a year before. 



MEETING THE INDIANS 155 

had shot and which, when boiled, were served to 
the forty people in the group. Winslow comments : 

This meal only we had in two nights and a day, 
and had not (xae of us bought [meaning, probably, 
brought] a partridge we had taken our journey fasting : 
Very importunate he was to have us stay with them 
longer: But wee desired to keepe the Sabboth at 
home: And feared we should either be light-headed 
for want of sleepe, for what with bad lodging, the 
Savages' barbarous singing (for they used to sing 
themselves asleepe) lice and flees within doores and 
Muskeetoes without, wee could hardly sleepe all 
the time of our being there ; we much fearing that if 
wee should stay any longer we should not be able to 
recover home for want of strength. So that on a 
Fryday morning before sun-rising we took our leave 
and departed, Massasoit being both grieved and 
ashamed that he could no better entertain us. 

This experience of Indian hospitality was typical. 
Massasoit and his followers came really to love the 
Pilgrims, and though there was plotting on the 
part of minor chiefs, there was nothing really 
unpleasant nor so important that the Pilgrims 
needed to take cognizance of it until 1623. And 
of this the Plymouth men were warned in time, 
— thanks to another visit made by Winslow to 
the friendly chief. This in response to the news 
that Massasoit was probably dead ! 

Hoping still to be in time to be of service to the 
old Indian, Winslow again set out for Middle- 
borough and by traveling rapidly was able soon 



156 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

to reach the sick man's bedside. There he found 
the powahs in the midst of their incantations,^ 
making, as he says, "such a helhsh noise as it 
distempered us that were well, and therefore un- 
like to ease him that was sick." Meanwhile six 
or eight women chafed the chief's arms, legs 
and thighs "to keep heat in him." He had not 
slept, it developed, for two days and had become 
entirely blind. 

Wlien the "charming" ceased, Massasoit was 
told who had come to see him. Upon this he 
feebly groped with his hand, which Winslow took. 
The chief then twice said faintly, ^' Keen Win- 
snow?'' ^ or "Art thou Winslow?" Winslow 
replied ^'Ahhe!'' or "Yes!" The patient then 
feebly muttered, "Malta neen wonckanet namen, 
Winsnow!"" which was to say, "I shall never 
see thee again, O Winslow!" Winslow then 
delivered, through Hobomok, a message of sym- 
pathy from Bradford and explained that he had 
brought from the Governor "such things as he 
thought most likely to do him good in this ex- 
tremity." Then producing "a confection of many 

^ "The priest comes close to the sick person and performs many strange 
actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness. The poor 
people commonly die under their hands ; for alas, they administer nothing, 
but howl and roar and hollew over them and begin the song to the rest of 
the people, who all join like a choir in prayer to their gods for them."— 
Roger Williams. 

'^ The Indians had much trouble with the European "r" sound, and 
commonly made an indistinct and unhappy nasal in place of it. Williams 
says: "Some pronounce not '1' nor 'r,' yet it is the most proper dialect of 
other places." 



MEETING THE INDIANS 157 

comfortable conserves ", Winslow placed some 
of it upon the point of his knife, and with great 
trouble succeeded in getting it between the sick 
man's teeth. When the confection had been 
dissolved in the patient's mouth, it was readily- 
swallowed. This greatly astonished and delighted 
the spectators, for nothing had been before swal- 
lowed for two days. 

Winslow then contrived to clean Massasoit's 
mouth, "which was exceedingly furred," and 
scrape his swollen tongue, removing an abundance 
of foul matter. Next the patient, desiring drink, 
some of the confection was dissolved in water and 
given him. Within half an hour he had visibly 
improved and soon began to see again. Winslow 
continued his nursing all night. He also sent 
Indians to Plymouth with a note describing the 
case and asking Doctor Fuller's advice, as well as 
that some delicacies be returned, especially a pair 
of chickens for broth. 

Before morning, the king's appetite beginning 
to return, he asked for broth or pottage like that 
he had eaten at Plymouth. Winslow was un- 
familiar with such cookery, and had neither meat, 
rice, vegetables nor seasoning. In that early 
month there were no herbs to be found. But 
setting his wits at work, he took the coarse part 
of some pounded corn and set it on the fire in an 
earthen pot ; ^ he then added a handful of straw- 

^ The pots they seethe their food in are made of clay or earth, almost in 
the form of an egg, the top taken off. — Gookin. 



158 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

berry leaves and the sliced roots of a sassafras 
bush.^ When the compound had been well cooked, 
he strained the liquid through his handkerchief 
and gave a pint of it to his patient. The broth 
was highly relished and seemed to work wonders ; 
the vital organs resumed their duties, the patient's 
sight became perfect, and a period of restful sleep 
soon followed. The worst of Massasoit's bad 
attack of indigestion and auto-intoxication was 
over. 

When the chief awoke next morning he per- 
suaded Winslow to go to the different wigwams 
and treat several of his "good folk" who were sick. 
This labor, though very offensive to Winslow's 
senses — he being *' unaccustomed with such poi- 
sonous savours" as pervaded the Indian's homes — 
was none the less performed with cheerfulness 
and Christian kindliness. Ultimately it proved 
very valuable to the people at Plymouth. 

In the afternoon, Massasoit desiring some wild 
fowl, Winslow succeeded in shooting a very fat 
duck, at a range of three hundred and sixty feet. 
When this had been made into broth, Winslow 
insisted on skimming off the fat, fearing its effect 
on a weak stomach ; but his willful patient would 
not take the broth in this form and in consequence, 
when he had eaten very heartily of the dish, was 
again sick. In his straining he brought on the 

^ Winslow tells all this story, embellishing it with full details in his 
Good News From New England to be found in what is known as "Mourt's 
Relation," 



MEETING THE INDIANS 159 

dreaded nosebleed, which could not be checked 
for four hours. The case for some time was 
desperate. But after a while the chief had a 
sleep nearly eight hours long, and when he awoke, 
Winslow proceeded to bathe his face and beard. 
Then the patient thrust his nose into the basin 
of water, and drawing up a large quantity, ejected 
it so violently that his nosebleed returned once 
more ! At this sight the Indians gave up their 
renewed hopes and utterly despaired ; but Win- 
slow, seeing that the bleeding was superficial, soon 
stopped it. The loss of blood had been a benefit. 
The king now needed only care as to diet, and 
more sleep. By the second morning he was com- 
paratively well, and was able to sit up and converse. 

The supplies from Plymouth arrived about 
twenty -four hours after the departure of the 
runners, but the medicines were no longer needed, 
and the chickens Massasoit wisely decided to keep 
for breeding. Visitors continued to come from 
all the tribes round about, and to them a pinese 
constantly repeated the details of the wonderful 
cure which his English friends had wrought upon 
their good ruler. 

The day before Winslow's coming, a visiting 
sachem had assured Massasoit that the English 
were no friends to him and especially insisted that 
they had neglected him in his sickness. After 
his recovery the chief could not too warmly or 
too constantly express his gratitude, exclaiming 
among other things: *'Now I see the English 



160 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

are my friends and love me; and while I live I 
will never forget this kindness they have showed 
me. 

Massasoit almost immediately had an oppor- 
tunity to demonstrate his gratitude. As the 
messengers were on the point of returning to 
Plymouth, the chief confided to Hobomok that a 
plot was even then on foot which would have been 
fatal to the Colony and which he [Hobomok] 
was to reveal to Winslow on his way home. 

Thomas Weston, who, back in Leyden, had 
shown a desire to have a hand in the Pilgrims' 
venture, in June, 1622, equipped and dispatched 
to New England two ships, the Charity and the 
Swan, which brought as passengers some fifty or 
sixty men, all bent on making speedy profits. 
They landed at Plymouth and were there enter- 
tained until they could make a settlement. After 
badly abusing the hospitality offered them, they 
had chosen (1622) Wessagusset (Weymouth) for 
their plantation. Here they had lived improvi- 
dently, treated the Indians badly, and in all 
respects undermined the friendliness which had 
been established by the Plymouth men with the 
natives who had signed the Indian Compact. 
Once they seriously contemplated making a raid 
on the Indians' stores, but had delayed taking 
this extreme step because Governor Bradford in 
Town Meeting had advised against it. 

Meanwhile, however, things had gone from bad 
to worse at Wessagusset, and Weston's men. 



MEETING THE INDIANS 161 

because reduced to a half -naked as well as half- 
starved condition, seemed to the Indians of 
Neponset an easy mark for extermination. The 
secret confided to Hobomok by Massasoit, and 
which he was to reveal to Winslow, was to the 
effect that these Neponset Indians had now re- 
solved on a general massacre, both of the settlers 
of Wessagusset and those of Plymouth. Against 
the latter they had no cause of complaint, but 
because they realized that they would resent 
with all possible expedition the ruthless murder 
of their fellow countrymen, it had been decided 
that the safest thing would be to put them out of 
the way also. With this intent the Neponset 
Indians had entered into a league with the seven 
tribes south and west of Plymouth and had 
endeavored to urge Massasoit even in his sickness 
to join them. It was in this way he had become 
aware of the existence of the plot. The chief's 
advice was that the Plymouth settlers should strike 
the first blow by seizing and executing the main 
conspirators among the Neponsets. 

Here was a situation indeed ! As it was now 
the time for holding the Court or annual Town 
Meeting for the election of officers, Bradford 
laid the matter before the whole body of the people 
in their chief assembly, directly Winslow brought 
the news of the conspiracy. The ensuing debate 
was anxious. The colonists were unwilling to 
shed the blood of those whose good they sought, 
but from the very decided words of Massasoit, 



162 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

no alternative seemed left to them. It was, 
therefore, agreed that Standish, taking with him a 
sufficient force, should start as if on a trading 
expedition, warn the settlers at Wessagusset of 
their imminent danger, and then strike home 
at the chief conspirators among the Indians. 

On arriving at Weston's colony Standish found 
to his dismay that the Swan was in the harbor 
without a soul on board, that the settlers were 
scattered in different directions, and that, enjoying 
their fancied security, the colonists were still allow- 
ing the Indians to come in and out of their dwellings 
as they pleased. His first step was to order all the 
men home and bid them stay there on pain of 
death. The following day being stormy, nothing 
could be done, but it did not take an Indian spy, 
who came among them under pretense of selling 
furs, long to sense the course affairs were taking, 
and he went back to report that the plot had been 
discovered. 

Daily, now, signs of insult and defiance oc- 
curred. But still the Captain made no move 
until one day he came upon Wituwamet and 
Pecksuot, two of the chief aggressors, together 
in a room. Then having men also on his side, 
Standish gave the word. A desperate hand-to- 
hand encounter followed : Wituwamet, Pecksuot, 
and another were killed, and the whole conspiracy 
nipped in the bud. When the matter came to 
further issue in the open, the next day, Standish 
triumphed by reason of having secured the strate- 



MEETING THE INDIANS 163 

gic advantage of a rising hill, for which both sides 
were striving. The encounter was altogether to 
Plymouth's advantage. But Standish was careful 
not to allow the least discourtesy toward the native 
women and children, and the affair tended to 
promote rather than decrease the esteem of the 
natives for the men of Plymouth. The best of the 
whole matter was that Weston's men decided 
that they had enough of colonization in Massa- 
chusetts and, putting all their movable property 
on board the Swan, sailed off to join the fishing 
vessels at Monhegan Island. 

It is unpleasant to be obliged to add that 
Standish bore the head of Wituwamet back with 
him to Plymouth. When Robinson at Leyden 
heard of this, he wrote to the Governor, lamenting 
that the blood of any Indian should have been shed 
before one had been converted. But if killing 
in self-defense is ever justifiable, Standish was 
justified on this occasion. One of the Boston 
Bay Indians, who always was friendly to the 
English, testified that the Neponsets had only 
been biding their time before an attack that would 
have destroyed all the white men thereabouts. 
Subsequent events, too, proved that the severity 
of Standish had done its work. The tribes who 
had joined with the conspirators, seeing their 
punishment, were filled with fear, and for many 
years peace reigned between the Indians and the 
colonists in and around Plymouth. 

The treaty with Massasoit was renewed in 1639 



164 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and again in 1662. While this chief Uved it was 
never broken. His successor, Philip, broke it in 
1675, when other influences came into play; but 
for fifty years it was observed to the letter. 

In 1637, to be sure, a real "Indian War" took 
place in another and more western New England 
State, the aggressors being the Pequots, one of the 
fiercest and most numerous tribes in the country, 
and one which had long shown a hostile spirit 
towards the English. This followed a succession of 
murders which had aroused the anger and pro- 
voked the retaliation of the peaceably disposed 
settlers. The Pequots sought to league together 
the Narragansetts, the Mohegans and other power- 
ful nations against the European colonists and 
by a predatory and murderous system of warfare 
to drive them into the sea. Through the intrepid 
interference of Roger Williams, the alliance was 
prevented. The Pequots were, therefore, left 
single-handed to carry out their project. They 
numbered at least seven hundred warriors, whereas 
the colonists of Connecticut could with difficulty 
muster two hundred fighting men. Still, repeated 
acts of bloodshed and aggression could no longer 
be borne with impunity, and an expedition was 
planned. Immediate war was decreed. A whole 
night was passed in earnest prayer in which the 
departing patriots took part. The little army 
consisted of eighty men under the command of one 
John Mason, who received the benediction of the 
venerable pastor before he started. 



MEETING THE INDIANS 165 

It is characteristic of the age that, when once 
these men of peace made up their minds to wage 
war, when once they felt that "the Lord", the 
God of Battles, was with them, they went to their 
task with a stern resolve to smite their enemies hip 
and thigh. No temporizing work was this they 
entered on; no "patched-up peace" were they 
prepared to make. But even then they rested 
over the Sabbath. Nor life nor death was suf- 
fered to disturb the sanctity of that day. The 
Narragan setts, responding to Roger Williams' 
pleas, finally retired from any active share in 
the undertaking, but the Pequots, elated with 
hopes of certain triumph, sang their blood-curdling 
war songs in the very ears of their invaders. They 
were ensconced in a fortified place, from whence 
their bows and arrows, never yet drawn vainly, 
were to mow down the ranks of the rash aggressors. 
Two hours before dawn the attack was made. 
We can well imagine how these men who had 
braved the mysterious sea and borne unheard-of 
sacrifices for liberty's sake would buckle up their 
energies to this deadly combat. They knew that 
if they failed now, savage vengeance would await 
their helpless families. And of course they did 
not fail. Bradford says the horrible suggestion 
of burning camps was due to the natives. We 
hope so, for there were women and children here 
as well as warriors. In any case a firebrand was 
thrown, the English formed a chain around the 
place, and in a few minutes the whole settlement 



166 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

was ablaze. Thus embarrassed and beset, the 
Indians were shot down easily ; none were spared. 
In an hour six hundred of them had perished, and 
only two Englishmen had fallen. When morning 
dawned three hundred more warriors came con- 
fidently up from the other fort. Aghast at the 
scene of carnage which met their astonished eyes, 
they tore their hair and beat the ground ; they, 
too, were swept down. Before many days were 
over, not a man, woman or child of that tribe 
was left behind ! The Pequots as a nation existed 
no more. 

Yet after all, the Indians were not always fighting 
their white neighbors. It is interesting therefore 
to read about their everyday habits and customs, 
as recorded at this period of Plymouth's history, 
by Thomas Lechford, an English lawyer who, after 
four years in the New World, wrote back in 1641 
the following informing, if rather uninspired, pages 
concerning native life as he had observed it. 

They are of body tall, proper and straight; they 
goe naked, saving about their middle, somewhat to 
cover shame. Seldom they are abroad in extremity of 
winter, but keep in their wigwams, till necessity drives 
them forth ; and then they wrap themselves in skins, 
or some of our English coorse cloth : and for the Winter 
they have boots, or a kind of laced ta wed-in leather 
stockins. They are naturally proud, and idle, given 
much to singing, dancing and playes ; they are governed 
by Sachems, Kings ; and Saggamores, petie Lords ; by 
an absolute tyrannic. Their women are of comely 



MEETING THE INDIANS 167 

feature, industrious, and doe most of the labour in 
planting, and carrying of burdens; their husbands 
hold them in great slavery, yet never knowing other, 
it is the lesse grievous to them. They say. Englishmen 
much foole, for spoiling good working creatures, mean- 
ing women : and when they see any of our English 
women sewing with their needles, or working coifes 
or such things, they will cry out, Lazie squaes! but they 
are much the kinder to their wives by the example of 
the English. Their children they will not part with, 
upon any terms, to be taught. They are of complexion 
swarthy and tawny ; their children are born white, but 
they bedawbe them with oyle and colors, presently. 
They have all black hair, that I saw. 

In times of mourning, they paint their faces with 
black lead, black, all about the eye-brows, and part of 
their cheeks. In time of rejoycing, they paint red, with 
a kind of vermilion. They cut their haire of divers 
formes, according to their Nation or people, so that 
you may know a people by their cut; and ever they 
have a long lock on one side of their heads, and weare 
feathers of Peacocks, and such like, and red cloath or 
ribbands at their locks ; beads of wampompeag about 
their necks, and a girdle of the same, wrought with 
blew and white wampom, after the manner of chequer 
work, two fingers broad, about their loynes : Some of 
their chiefe men goe so, and pendants of wampom, 
and such toyes in their ears. And their women, some 
of the chiefe, have faire bracelets, and chaines of wam- 
pom. Men and women, of them, come confidently 
among the English. Since the Pequid War, they are 
kept in very good subjection, and held to strict points 
of Justice, so that the English may travail safely among 



168 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

them. But the French in the East and the Dutch in 
the South, sell them guns, powder and shot. They 
have Powahes or Priests, which are Witches, and a kind 
of Chirurgions, but some of them notwithstanding are 
faine to be beholding to the English Chirurgions. They 
will have their times of powaheing, which they will, of 
late, have called Prayers, according to the English 
word. The Powahe labours himself e in his incanta- 
tions, to extreme sweating and wearinesse, even to 
extacie. The Poioahes cannot work their witchcraft 
if any of the English be by ; neither can any of their 
incantations lay hold on, or doe any harm to the 
English, as I have been credibly informed. The Powahe 
is next the King or Sachem, and commonly when he 
dyes, the Powahe marryes the Squa Sachem, that is, 
the queene. 

They have marriages among them ; they have many 
wives ; they say, they commit much filthinesse among 
themselves. But for every marriage, the Saggamore 
hath a fadome of wampom, which is about seven or 
eight shillings value. Some of them will diligently 
attend to any thing they can understand by any of our 
Religion, and are very willing to teach their language to 
any English. They live much the better and peaceably 
for the English; and themselves know it, or at least 
their Sachems, and Saggamores know so much, for 
before they did nothing but spoile and destroy one 
another. They live in wigwams, or houses made of 
mats like little hutts, the fire in the midst of the house. 
They cut down a tree with axes and hatchets, bought 
of the English, Dutch and French, & bring in the butt- 
end into the wigwam, upon the hearth, and so burne 
it by degrees. They live upon parched corne, (of late 



MEETING THE INDIANS 169 

they grind at our English mills). Venison, Bevers, 
Otters, Oysters, Clammes, Lobsters, and other fish, 
Ground-Nuts, Akornes, they boyle all together in a 
kettle. 

Their riches are their wampom, holies, trayes, 
kettles, and spoones, bever, furres, and canoos. He is 
a Sachem, whose wife hath her cleane spoons in a chest 
for some chief English men, when they come on guest 
wise to the wigwam. They lye upon a mat, with a 
stone, or a piece of wood under their heads ; they will 
give the best entertainment they can make to any 
English comming amongst them. 

They will not taste sweet things, nor alter their 
habit willingly; onely are they taken with tobacco, 
wine, and strong waters ; and I have scene some of 
them in English or French cloathes. Their ordinary 
weapons are bowes and arrowes, and long staves, or 
half pykes, with pieces of swords, daggers, or knives in 
the ends of them ! They have Captaines, and are very 
good at a short mark, and nimble of foot to run away. 
Their manner of fighting is, most commonly, all in one 
fyle. They are many in number, and worship Kitan, 
their good god, or Hobbamocco, their evill god; but 
more feare Hobbamocco, because he doth them most 
harme. Some of their kings names are Canonicus, 
Meantinomy, Owshameqin, Cushameqin, Webbacowitts, 
and Squa Sachem, his wife : she is the Queene, and he 
is Powahe, and King, in the right of his wife. Among 
some of these Nations, their policie is to have two 
Kings at a time ; but, I thinke, of one family ; the one 
aged for counsell, the other younger for action. Their 
Kings succeed by inheritance.^ 

^ "Plaine dealing or Newes from New-England." 



170 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

For thirty -eight years after the summary treat- 
ment accorded the Pequots, the intercourse be- 
tween the Enghsh and the Indians was, on the 
surface at any rate, extremely friendly. But with 
the lapse of time the dread inspired by the white 
man's success on this occasion began to fade away ; 
and as it became possible for the Indians themselves 
to use muskets instead of bows and arrows, their 
fear of the English grew less, until at length hate 
and resentment burst forth in what we have come 
to know as King Philip's War. 

Some recent writers have declared that the 
economic and ecclesiastical results of this war 
give it its only title to a prominent place in Plym- 
outh annals. This would seem to be the fact, for 
Philip was merely the degenerate son of the good 
King Massasoit; and, like many such sons, he 
made one desperate effort to bring himself and 
his followers once more conspicuously into a place 
of power. His wrongs were chiefly fancied ones, 
but he longed to stand at the head of the New Eng- 
land tribes and to lead his race to a place where 
they could recover the ground that they had lost. 

Of course it was a fact that the English were 
increasing in power and the Indians steadily 
diminishing. That this was the Indians' fault did 
not change the fact. It was simply a case of the 
educated man possessed of industry, foresight, and 
increasing resources pitted against the apathy 
and avidness of the savage. Probably Philip 
felt that he had a real cause to hate the Pilgrims. 



MEETING THE INDIANS 171 

Wlien Massasoit died in 1660, he left two sons, 
Wamsuppa and Matacom, whom the English 
nicknamed Alexander and Philip. Alexander suc- 
ceeded to his father's position as head of the tribe ; 
but his reign was brief and that for a reason to 
which many writers have attributed the cause of 
Philip's hatred. 

Rumors had come to Plymouth that Alexander 
was plotting mischief, and he was accordingly 
summoned to appear before the General Court of 
the Colony and explain himself. He appears to 
have gone reluctantly, but he succeeded in satis- 
fying the magistrate that he was innocent of any 
evil designs. Unfortunately, he had scarcely got 
clear of English territory, on his way back, when 
he was seized by a violent fever and died. Pos- 
sibly he caught cold at Plymouth; perhaps he 
drank too deeply of "fire water" by way of cel- 
ebrating his visit. In any case he died and the 
onus of his death was placed by the Indians on the 
Pilgrims. 

For thirteen years Philip plotted before the 
crisis came. During those years he had been Chief 
Sachem of his tribe, and though the Plymouth 
people occasionally heard rumors of an unfriendly 
disposition on his part, nothing was done about the 
matter until in April, 1671, a meeting was arranged 
between the men of Plymouth and three Boston 
men to see what steps should be taken to keep the 
chief in order. This meeting was held at Taunton 
and resulted in a treaty in which the king promised 



172 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

that his tribe should surrender all their firearms. 
Seventy muskets were actually given up, though 
not, we may be sure, without a great deal of 
reluctance. The following summer the Plymouth 
men were hourly expectant of attack from the 
Indians, and in September, Philip and five of 
his under-sachems were again told, at Plymouth, 
that it behooved them to look sharp and keep the 
peace. They agreed to pay a yearly tribute of 
five wolves' heads and to do no active fighting 
without the permission of the authorities. 

Then, for three years more, things went on 
quietly enough until, late in 1674, Sausamon, a 
convert from a Massachusetts tribe, who could 
speak and write good English by reason of having 
studied at Harvard College, came to Plymouth 
and informed Governor Winslow that Philip was 
without question engaged in a conspiracy that 
boded no good to the colonists. Sausamon had 
been connected with Philip as a kind of messenger 
or secretary, and undoubtedly knew whereof he 
spoke, so the magistrates summoned Philip again 
and warned him that his arms would surely be 
seized if they heard any more about such plots. 
Philip loudly proclaimed that he was utterly inno- 
cent ; but a few days later Sausamon suffered a 
violent death from drowning in the ice at Asso- 
wamsett Pond near Middleborough. 

Then the storm broke. Having filled his fol- 
lowers full of war lust, the king opened hostilities 
by an attack on Swansea, a village of about forty 



MEETING THE INDIANS 173 

houses not far from Philip's headquarters at 
Mount Hope. On Sunday, June 20th, while 
everybody was at church, a group of Indians 
stole into the town and set fire to two houses. 
When messengers, who had been hurried from 
Plymouth and from Boston to demand that the 
offenders be given over to them under penalty of 
instant war, approached Swansea, they were 
chilled with horror to find the roads strewn with 
the mangled corpses of men, women, and children. 
This was in the last days of June, 1675. Soon it 
was perfectly evident that a well-thought-out 
movement was under way, first to overwhelm and 
annihilate the Pilgrims, and then to carry destruc- 
tion to all the English settlements in New England. 

But Philip had an enormous job on his hands. 
His own immediate tribe had dwindled to not much 
more than three hundred all told, while the whites 
in New England had increased to more than fifty 
thousand. The confederated colonies of Massa- 
chusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut now num- 
bered over forty thousand, against which the 
Indians could not possibly have mustered more 
than twelve thousand natives at most. 

Yet the war ran on for more than a year and a 
half ; massacre followed massacre, and town after 
town went up in flames. The opening attack 
on Swansea was quickly succeeded by attacks on 
Dartmouth, Middleborough, and Taunton. At 
the end of six weeks the scene of war shifted from 
the bounds of Plymouth to the territory of Massa- 



174 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

chusetts, where the same horrors were reenacted. 
Then since the primary object of the struggle — 
to exterminate the Plymouth people — had not 
yet been attained, the Pilgrim settlement was 
again made a center of attack. William Clarke's 
garrison house, located within three miles of the 
Rock, was set upon and burned while the men 
were at church, and eleven women and children, 
including Mrs. Clarke, were killed ; after which the 
Indians took what plunder they desired, set fire 
to the building, and fled. 

As the first time that War actually touched the 
Plymouth settlement, this event is of distinct 
interest. Captain Michael Pierce of Scituate 
led a little company against the aggressive enemy, 
but the foe tremendously outnumbered him and 
his men, when he met them at what is now Paw- 
tucket, and he and his company were utterly wiped 
out. Scituate, Rehoboth, Dartmouth, Bridge- 
water, and Middleborough shared in these horrors, 
as the war progressed. This was a black time all 
along the border line which separated the English 
and the Indians, for, as one writer says, "men took 
their lives in their hands when they went forth to 
their daily tasks ; and wives and mothers left 
alone with their babes knew not what bereave- 
ments the night might bring them." 

But the end was in sight. After a year and a 
half of struggle,^ the Indians found their forces 

1 Considerable contemporary comment on this war as it progressed may 
be gleaned from the Hinckley papers — Plymouth, 1672-1692 — to be found 
in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collection, 4th series, V. 







:dSvvrtlJi'/fi,iMM iViH'iilu'il.1ii!MVriili'i:iilJii'li'l'iitl!tlii|'(ili!lu'MlHiW 



I'liiiit 



OS 5 



?: -^ « 



Pi Sir 



X ^ 



ti fi « ^ 



.i^%. 
*■■*% 



^'>, V 



\ *H- 



a: J 



■"^^ 




,#- ^ I ^ 



MEETING THE INDIANS 175 

so reduced that when the direction of the Pilgrims' 
fighters was turned over to Captain Benjamin 
Church, a Plymouth man, who has been called 
*'the Miles Standish of the second generation", 
Philip was soon tracked to his lair and shot. 
Save for skulking Indians in swamps, petty skir- 
mishes, and the like, the war was at an end. But its 
cost was great. Thirteen towns had been de- 
stroyed, six hundred dwelling houses burned, some 
six hundred men — many of them foremost citizens 
of their several communities — killed, and private 
property to the extent of about a hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds destroyed. All of which 
resulted in a debt which, distributed equally, 
meant four pounds almost if not quite, for every 
man, woman, and child left in the jurisdiction of 
the colony to meet. This was a staggering amount 
for Plymouth to assume ; but it was eventually 
paid to the last penny. 

Waging war with the Indians was the exception 
not the rule, however, as has been said. Provisions 
for peaceful life with these earlier inhabitants of 
Plymouth and the surrounding country had also 
to be made. The colonists early discovered that, 
human nature being what it is, regulations would 
be necessary in order that the Indians should 
receive absolutely fair treatment, and they pro- 
ceeded to make such regulations. In 1643 it was 
enacted that it should be "beholden unlawful 
and of dangerous consequence and it hath been 
our constant custom from our very first beginning 



176 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

that no person should purchase, rent or hire any 
lands, herbage, wood or timber of the Indians but 
by the magistrate's consent." In order that this 
law should be enforced, a fine of five dollars was 
imposed for every acre that was purchased, rented, 
or hired, and five times the value of the wood and 
the timber diverted to the Colony's use. In 1660 
it was enacted that this law should be so inter- 
preted as to prevent any from taking Indian land 
as a gift. 

Thus every practicable precaution was taken to 
protect the rights of the Indians and to prevent 
improper and deceptive practices on the part of 
individuals. Then, for the peace and safety of the 
Colony, all persons were forbidden either to give or 
sell arms and the munitions of war to the Indians, 
or boats '* excepting to such as had been servants 
for some years, and in a good measure civilized, 
and unless the sale to such should be approved by 
the governor and his assistants." In 1652 the 
sale of casks to the Indians was prohibited, and in 
1656 that of barques, boats, and horses under the 
penalty of the value of each tenfold. 

To be sure there were also laws not so defensible 
as these, such as the ones which undertook (1652) 
to prohibit the Indians from working, fishing, 
fowling, planting, killing, or carrying burdens on 
the Lord's Day. The idea of a law imposing severe 
penalties for a violation of the Sabbath upon 
people who do not acknowledge the Sabbath's 
sanctity does not particularly appeal to one's 



MEETING THE INDIANS 177 

sense of justice. Yet it is to be noted that such 
laws obtain on our statute books at the present 
time and are enforced. The Plymouth people put 
the laws on, but used a fine discretion about en- 
forcing them. 

A really arrogant law touching the Indians, one 
whose only defense is that it was a measure looking 
to self-preservation, dates from 1660 and reads as 
follows: "Inasmuch as complaint is made that 
many Indians press into divers places of this 
jurisdiction whereby some of the plantations begin 
to be oppressed by them, they therefore enact 
that no strange or foreign Indians shall be per- 
mitted to come into any places of this jurisdiction, 
so as to make their residence there and that notice 
be given to the several sagamores to prevent the 
same." 

Laws against selling drink to the Indians, laws 
against selling them powder and shot, laws com- 
pelling them to pay their just debts or work them 
out at the rate of 12cZ each day in summer and 6d 
in winter "with their diet" may also be found. 
The selectmen and constables in every town were 
authorized also to put out "upon complaint" 
young Indians living idly to "some persons as 
shall keep them to work and not to abuse them." 
Even here the Indian was protected it will be seen. 

Occasionally, too, they relaxed the strictness 
of their own laws against the Indians. Thus we 
find in the Plymouth Colony Records for 1665 : 

"Upon the earnest request of Philip, the Indian 



178 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

sachem of Pocanacutt, for to have Hbertie to buy 
a horse within our jurisdiction, the Court have 
bestowed a horse on him, as judging it meeter 
then to give him Hbertie to buy one ; the horse 
is that which provided for the trumpeter belonging 
to the troop of horses which is spared from the said 
service on condition that another bee provided 
to bee in his rome." And again 

"Notwithstanding the law prohibiting the selling 
of horses to Indians, the Court aloweth Keens- 
comsett, an Indian att Barnstable, to buy a horse 
to bee for his use in husbandry, to bee done by the 
advise and direction of Mr. Hinckley, Mr. Gorum, 
and Nathaniell Bacon." 

But I think it must already have been sufficiently 
established that whether the Pilgrims, on landing 
at Plymouth, did or did not fall on their knees, 
they neither then nor at a later period "fell on 
the aborigines.'* 



CHAPTER IX 

HOW THEY MADE THEIR LAWS AND TRIED TO LIVE 
UP TO THEM 

Even before the Pilgrims had landed on the 
"stern New England coast", it became apparent 
to the most thoughtful among them that, in 
emigrating from Holland to America, they were in 
a way to achieve independence not only in eccle- 
siastical affairs but also in temporal matters. 
Much of this was a result of the years passed in 
Leyden. A consistently congregational Church 
government inevitably develops Democracy. And 
when Democracy begins to function in the field of 
religion, it is pretty sure also to function in the 
field of politics. Bancroft insists that the Com- 
pact signed in the Mayflower was the "birth of 
popular constitutional liberty." 

The reason why the Mayflower Compact was 
necessary becomes quite clear if we remind our- 
selves that the place where the Pilgrims landed 
was a part of the coast not included in the territory 
of the Company of Southern Virginia. The grant 
from this company with which the emigrants had 
furnished themselves was, therefore, valueless. 



180 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Those who had embarked at Southampton were 
incHned to take advantage of this, declaring that, 
once they were on shore, they would comport 
themselves as they pleased in that they were 
bound to the expedition by no legal tie. This 
was too true to be ignored. 

The members of the congregation from Ley den, 
on the other hand, had of course signed their 
Church Covenant, and so were, as Robinson and 
Brewster explained in their request made to the 
Virginia Company in 1617, *'knite together as a 
body in a most stricte and sacred bond and cove- 
nan te of the Lord, of the violation Whereof We 
make great conscience, and by Virtue Whereof 
We hold ourselves straitly tied to all, caring of each 
other's Good and of the Whole by every one and 
so mutually." Quite naturally it occurred to those 
of the Church Covenant to offer to the strangers 
who had come with them a contract similar to 
their own. A precedent for such an agreement as 
the basis of a civil association may be found in the 
form by which the old guilds, to which the company 
of the Pilgrim Fathers may be compared from a 
legal point of view, were wont to bind themselves 
together. The guilds were similar voluntary asso- 
ciations founded, until they received the sanction 
of a royal charter, on contract alone. It was 
apparently under the direction of Elder Brewster, 
who was a man of business as well as a man of 
God, that the Mayflower Compact was drawn 
up and signed without distinction as to heads of 



THEIR LAWS 



181 



families, just as the agreement which united the 
*' Company of true Christians" had been signed 
by every one in the group. The names of common 
sailors and of servants are found among the signa- 
tures ^ which have been preserved. 

Bradford printed the text of this Compact in 
his "History" without giving the names of the 
signatories ; these were furnished by Morton in 
his "Memorial", apparently from some list in 
Bradford's papers to which he had access. The 
Colony proper consisted of thirty-four adult males, 
eighteen of whom were accompanied by their 
wives, and fourteen by children under twenty- 
one years of age, — twenty boys and eight girls. 
Besides there were nineteen men servants and 
three maid servants, and sailors and craftsmen 
hired for temporary service. 

Of the thirty -four men who were the nucleus of 
the Colony, the great majoritj^ were from Leyden, 
onl}^ four of the number being certainly known 
to have first joined at Southampton. It may 



iJohn Carver 
William Bradford 
Edward Winslow 
William Brewster 
Isaac AUerton 
Myles Standish 
John Alden 
Samuel Fuller 
Christopher Martin 
William MuUins 
William White 
Richard Warren 
John Howland 
Stephen Hopkins 



Edward Tilley 
John Tilley 
Francis Cook 
Thomas Rogers 
Thomas Tinker 
John Rigdale 
Edward Fuller 
John Turner 
Francis Eaton 
James Chilton 
John Crackston 
John Billington 
Moses Fletcher 
John Goodman 



Degory Priest 
Thomas Williams 
Gilbert Winslow 
Edmund Margeson 
Peter Brown 
Richard Britteridge 
George Sowle 
Richard Clarke 
Richard Gardiner 
John AUerton 
Thomas English 
Edward Doty 
Edward Lister 



182 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

also be mentioned in advance that the last sur- 
viving signer of the far-famed compact was John 
Alden, who died in 1686 at the age of eighty-seven, 
and that of the passengers, the one who lived 
longest was Mary, the daughter of Isaac Allerton, 
who died as late as 1699, at the age of ninety. 

Just because the Compact had been signed by 
practically all the male passengers of the May- 
flower, the government of the Colony was from the 
beginning in the hands of the whole body, a 
General Court or Primary Assembly. This body 
chose Carver for their first Governor, and on his 
death, William Bradford, with Isaac Allerton as 
his assistant. It elected, too, a military com- 
mander. Miles Standish. Besides exercising elec- 
tive functions, the members of the General Court 
decided on the place of settlement and the laying 
out of the town. The freemen as a whole were 
consulted about dangers of various kinds as they 
came up ; they it was who sent Standish off on 
his notable adventure with the Indians. Later 
they were consulted as to the conditions on which 
certain newcomers should be admitted to the 
Colony ; and they agreed, at the break-up of the 
joint-stock system under which the Colony lived 
its economic life at first, upon the division of lands 
and cattle. It was the whole company, too, which 
was summoned to do justice in the case of out- 
standing offenders. 

Naturally as the number of colonists increased 
and other freemen were admitted on the approval 



THEIR LAWS 183 

of those who first signed the Compact, it became 
impossible for the General Court to remain a 
primary assembly, though it was still the source 
of power. Thus it came about that the general 
body met as a rule only once a year, and on this 
occasion elected oflScers and framed or repealed 
laws. Originally this meeting was held on the 
first Tuesday in March, but later, on account of the 
severity of spring weather and the difficulties of 
travel, the time of convening the General Court 
was changed to the first Tuesday in June.^ 

As the years passed, the tendency was for the 
Primary Court to let its powers lapse; in 1658 
voting by proxy was allowed even in the June 
Court, and the freemen were not obliged to appear 
in person unless something of special importance 
made it necessary. Aged freemen as early as 
1652 were permitted to send their votes, sealed up, 
a presage of the ballot system which came probably 
from Holland, where it was used largely in the 
elections of the Reformed Church. 

Towards the end of the Colony's independent 
life the Primary Court did little except elect 
officers, all the other business of the Colony being 
done by the Governor and his assistants. There 
were now seven of these assistants to carry the 
heavy work, and they transacted their business 
either in their own monthly Courts or in the three 

1 To be sure other Courts were held in March and October, which were 
also called General Courts ; but to them the freemen might send elected dep- 
uties instead of coming themselves. 



184 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

annual General Courts, deputies or committees 
from each of the towns joining in the work. 

But though the freeman, with this growth of 
representation, no longer had the personal share 
in the decisions of the Colony which he had exer- 
cised at the beginning, Democracy did not cease 
on that account. The machinery of government, 
the legislative and judicial systems, land owning, 
finance and military matters, all showed the same 
principle of equality, and all were intimately 
controlled by the will of the people. To be sure 
the conditions of the franchise were strict ; for 
although freemen were not, as in the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony, compelled by law to be church mem- 
bers, church members would naturally be most 
readily approved. Moreover, the limitation of 
membership was character and not wealth. Not 
until 1671 was the possession of property made a 
condition of active citizenship. 

If a man were elected to office he could not refuse 
to carry its burdens, and few, if any of the offices 
had any regular salaries attached to them. The 
mechanism of government was appealingly simple. 
The chief civil officers of the Colony in early days 
were the Governor and his assistants, who acted 
as magistrates ; the Treasurer, who managed the 
finances, the Constable who saw to the keeping of 
the peace, and whose duty it was to collect the 
rates; the Marshall or messenger, who had to 
enforce the decisions of the Court. 

This last-named functionary had a full-sized 



THEIR LAWS 185 

job, for not only did he collect the fines but ap- 
parently he was the executioner as well. Jonathan 
Marsh in 1675 drew the line at "puting to death" ; 
and the Court agreed to arrange otherwise for this 
unpleasant detail of the Marshal's department. 
In 1646 a Receiver of Excise was appointed in 
each town, and a Town Clerk to keep the registers 
of marriage, birth, and burial ; in 1658 a Coroner 
was appointed, v/hose ofiice was to be like that of 
the coroner in England. All these officials, great 
and small, were elected annually at the June 
Court. 

In the matter of legislation, the Colony was 
governed, during the first sixteen years of its life, 
by the laws of England ; but in 1636 a special 
committee of men from each township, together 
with the Governor and his assistants, drew up 
a code more particularly suited to the needs of 
Plymouth. This was revised and added to several 
times during the century, the special cooperation 
of freemen either personally or through committees 
being invited in the work. The intent seems to 
have been to safeguard in the laws the interests 
of all classes of persons, English and Indians alike ; 
but local and temporary regulations and moral 
restrictions play an increasing part with the 
passage of the years, the code showing a tendency 
all the while toward the severity of the Jewish 
Law. Laws dealing with religious matters became 
more frequent too, as the years went on.'^ Whereas 
things were so primitive in the beginning that no 



186 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

statute book was deemed necessary — an entry 
in the Governor's notebook being regarded as 
sufficient for the purpose — toward the end of 
1623, the Colony Record Book was started. 

The first entry in this Record Book, under the 
date of December 17, 1623, marks an important 
development in criminal procedure. For the first 
recorded law of the Colony established trial by 
jury. 

Previous to the year 1636, the Plymouth Colony 
may be considered to have been but a voluntary 
association, ruled by the majority and not by 
fixed laws. It does not appear (except in a very 
few instances) that the Pilgrims availed them- 
selves of their delegated powers, under their 
patent, to enact laws until 1633. A few laws 
only, and such as were of the most urgent necessity, 
were then established, such as declaring every 
person within the jurisdiction liable to the per- 
formance of military duty ; giving the jurisdiction 
of the probate of wills and of granting administra- 
tions to the Governor and assistants ; regulating 
fishing and fowling; authorizing constables and 
persons trespassed upon to impound cattle taken 
in damage feasant. Penalties were directed to be 
inflicted on such as fired the woods. Lands of 
deceased persons were made liable for their debts 
in case of the insufficiency of personal property. 

All this while, however, no provision was made 
for the support of schools or the clergy. The 
attachment of the people, then, insured the main- 



THEIR LAWS 187 

tenance of the clergy without the coercion of the 
law ; and no oaths of office were administered or 
required. The power of the Church, in effect, 
was superior to the civil power, but in terms was 
confined to the infliction of censure only. A people 
like the members of Robinson's church, of pure 
morals, austere manners, and enthusiastic piety, 
if confined to a small space, where the conduct 
of each would daily fall under the observation of 
the pastor, elder, and all such as they had been 
taught to venerate and were accustomed to respect, 
might be preserved for a time from the commission 
of any gross offenses or any desperate crimes. 
But as the settlements expanded, as trade in- 
creased, as strangers came in pursuit of gain with- 
out any reference to the ordinances of religion — 
men who, regardless of their spiritual good, pur- 
sued their temporal interest — the authority 
founded on the dread of censure alone became 
impaired. Codes of ethics, or the precepts of 
the gospel, could now no longer prevent the occur- 
rence of disputes, or the existence of wrongs. 

Civilians arguing upon the theoretic principles of 
government without considering the actual state 
of the people have inclined to think the colonists 
a trading corporation with confined and limited 
powers, not having the authority to enact laws 
or to perform any act of sovereignty. They 
did, as a matter of fact, exercise sovereign power 
during the whole period of their colonial exist- 
ence ; but the essential laws on which their 



188 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

rule and government rested may be dated from 
1633. 

No further progress in lawmaking is to be noted 
during the next few years, but the time had now 
arrived when all perceived the necessity of defining 
the limits of the power and of prescribing the 
actual duties of the magistrates and of the people ; 
of securing civil privileges ; of establishing funda- 
mental and organic laws, both civil and criminal, 
and making provision for their execution ; of 
changing the legal condition of the associates by 
making them a body politic, ruled by law and not 
by opinion ; in a word, of placing the government 
on a stable foundation and advancing another stage 
in the progress of social life. 

On the fifteenth of November, at a Court of 
Associates, the following declaration was ordered : 

"We, the associates of New Plymouth, coming 
hither as freeborn subjects of the State of England, 
and endowed with all and singular the privileges 
belonging to such, being assembled, do ordain 
that no act, imposition, law% or ordinance be made 
or imposed upon us at the present or to come, but 
such as shall be made and imposed by consent of 
the body of the associates, or their representatives 
legally assembled, which is according to the liber- 
ties of the state of England." 

This order is of no ordinary character. Whether 
the laws of England which preceded this order 
were renounced, is equivocal ; the authority of 
English laws "at present or to come" was re- 



THEIR LAWS 189 

nounced, and Parliament was denied by the whole 
body of the associates the right of legislating for 
New Plymouth. This order is the first declaration 
of rights if not of independence, and the laws which 
followed became absolutely necessary for the pres- 
ervation of the government. 

The courts were now all to be holden at Plym- 
outh unless otherwise ordered by the Governor 
and assistants, who were authorized upon reason- 
able cause "to keep some courts of assistants 
elsewhere." 

It was enacted that on the first Tuesday of June, 
a governor and seven assistants should be chosen 
*'to rule and govern the plantation within the 
limits of this corporation ", and the election was 
confined to the freemen. The qualifications re- 
quired to constitute a freeman were twenty -one 
years of age, "sober and peaceable conversation, 
orthodox in the fundamentals of religion ", and 
a rateable estate of the value of twenty pounds. 
All these were prerequisites before any man was 
admitted to the oath prescribed to be taken by 
freemen.^ 

' The following oath was prescribed for the freemen at this court : 
"You shall be truly loyal to our dread lord King Charles, his heirs and 
successors, you shall not do nor speak, devise or advise anything, or things, 
act or acts, directly or indirectly by land or water that shall or may tend to 
the destruction or overthrow of the present plantations or township of the 
corporation of New Plymouth: neither shall you suffer the same to be 
spoken or done, but shall hinder, oppose and discover the same to the gov- 
ernor and assistants of the said colony for the time being, or some one of 
them : you shall faithfully submit unto such good and faithful laws and ordi- 
nances as either are or shall be made for the ordering and government of the 
same, and shall endeavor to advance the good and growth of the several 



190 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

It was also enacted that the Governor in due 
season, by warrant directed to the several con- 
stables in the name of his Majesty, should give 
notice to the freemen either to make their personal 
appearance at the Courts of Election, or to send 
their votes by proxy for the choice of officers, and 
that all warrants, summons and commands "be 
all done, directed, and made in the name of our 
sovereign lord the king." 

All this time the General Court was the supreme 
authority ; and the following laws it made capital 
and ordered to be punished with death : 

*'l. Treason or rebellion against the person of 
our sovereign lord the King, the State or Com- 
monwealth of England, or this corporation. 

"2. Wilful murder. 

"3. Diabolical conversation, or conversing with 
the Devil, by way of witchcraft, conjuration, or 
the like. 

"4. Wilful or purposed burning of ships or 
houses. 

"5. Rape, and the crimes against nature." 

In the enumeration of capital offenses, bur- 
glary and highway robbery are omitted. Witch- 
craft is made capital, as it then was in England 
and probably throughout Christendom. The be- 
lief in its existence was a delusion common to all, 

townships and plantations within the limits of this corporation by all due 
means and courses, all which you promise and swear by the name of the 
great God of heaven, and earth, firmly, truly, and faithfully to perform, as 
you hope for help from God, who is the god of truth, and punisher of false- 
hood." 



THEIR LAWS 191 

and the extreme punishment was warranted by the 
general beHef. So however deeply we may regret 
the ignorance and fanaticism of the age which 
cherished such a behef, we cannot with justice 
impugn the motives of those who provided this 
punishment. In the Plymouth Colony, happily, 
the law was a dead letter; or at least no con- 
victions were made, and no punishment inflicted 
by reason of its existence. 

The willful burning of ships or houses, without 
discriminating between the night and the day, was 
made a capital offense for reasons fairly obvious. 
The law in modern times changed this ; punish- 
ment has also been relaxed in the case of crimes 
against nature, although such were punished 
capitally in Massachusetts until 1806. 

The Court orders of these early days in Plym- 
outh throw great light on the social life of the 
time, and on the problems of government with 
which Bradford and his associates had to cope. 
Here we find not only careful provision made that 
work necessary to the fortification of the town, 
for instance, should be performed in a just and 
equitable manner, and that men be provided 
with ''a suflficient musket & other serviceable 
peece for war, with bandelereos & other apurte- 
nants with what speede may be " (Plymouth 
Colony records, January 2, 1632 and 1633), but 
that property rights in hogs, always difficult 
animals to control, should be adequately defended. 
Hogs indeed run amuck in quite amusing fashion 



192 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

through these otherwise serious and often tragic 
pages. 

That there was considerable drunkenness is also 
clear, and that ''bundling" had already begun to 
be practiced (but not winked at, as it was, later, 
in other parts of New England) is similarly plain.^ 
Thus in April, 1633, we find in one day the three 
following items : 

1. John Holmes was censured for drunkenness, to 
sitt in the stocke, & amerced in twenty shillings fine. 

2. John Hows & Jone his wife adjudged to sitt in 
the stocke because the said Jone conceived with childe 
by him before they were publickcly married, though 
in the time of contract. 

3. John Thorp & Alice his wife likewise adjudged 
to sitt in the stocke, & amerced in forty shillings fine, 
because his wife conceived with childe before marriage, 
but in regard of their prnt poverty, twelve moneths 
time given for paymt." 

Apparently, too, offenses against purity of life 
were punished even when the offenses dated back 
to the period before the migration. Thus we find 
in 1683 that 

Whereas Thomas Boardman liveing incontinently 
with Luce, his now wyfe, and did beget her wth child 
before they were marryed together, wch upon examina- 
tion was confessed by them both, the said Thorn. 
Boardman was censured to be severely whipt. wch was 
performed, and to finde sureties for his good behavr; 

^ See in this connection my "Social Life in Old New England," pp. 
201-203. 



THEIR LAWS 193 

and that he left the child (so unlawfully begotten) 
liveing in England, & bringe good testimonie thereof; 
and the sd Luce, his wyfe, to be censured when shee is 
delivered, as the Bench shall think fitt. 

Directly under this entry in the old Court Orders 
is the amusing record that "Thomas Hallowell 
was committed because he cannot bring forth 
where he had a paire of red silk stockings, now 
showed in the court, whch afterwards, he con- 
fessed that he tooke out of a window of a house 
in Boston, & was there upon sent to Boston to 
answere the fact." 

On the following page of the Records we find that 
the Thomas Boardman who had left a child behind 
in England was further required to bring from 
his London ward and parish proof that the child 
so left was alive when put out to nurse. This is 
but one illustration of the extreme care exercised 
that life at Plymouth should not fall below old- 
country standards in any respect. 

None the less the records show repeated and 
gross instances of impurity. One does not have 
to look far here for the "original" of Hawthorne's 
"Scarlet Letter." On September 3, 1639, we 
find that 

Mary, the wyfe of Robt. Mendame, of Duxburrow, 
for useing dallyance divers tymes with Tinsin, an 
Indian, and after committing the act of uncleannesse 
with him, as by his own confession by sevall interpters 
is made apparent, the Bench doth therefore censure the 
said Mary to be whipt at a carte tayle through the 



194 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

townes streete, and to weare a badge upon her left 
sleeve during her abroad within this gount ; and if 
shee shalbe found without it abroad, then to be burned 
in the face with a hott iron ; and the said Tinsin, the 
Indian, to be well whipt with a halter about his neck 
at the post, because it arose through the allurement 
& inticement of the said Mary, that hee was drawne 
thereunto. 

Xpofer Winter, of Scituate, for committing unclean- 
esse with Jane, his wyfe, before marriage, is censured 
to be whipt at the post at the govnrs discretion ; and 
the said Jane, his wyfe, to be whipt at a cart's tayle 
wth the said Mary Mendame. 

It is further interesting in this connection to 
find that in 1641, when Thomas Bray of Yarmouth, 
single, and Anne, the wife of Francis Linsford, 
confessed to immoral intimacy, they were censured 
*'in the publike Court," as follows : 

Forasmuch as Thomas Bray, of Yarmouth, a single 
pson, and Anne, the wyfe of Francis Linceford, have 
comitted the act of adultery and uncleanesse, and have 
divers tymes layne in one bed together in the absence 
of her husband, wch hath been confessed by both pties 
in the publike Court, the Court doth censure them as 
followeth : that they be both severely whipt imme- 
diately at the publik post & that they shall weare 
whilst they remaine in the Govment two letters, viz, 
an AD, for Adulterers, daly upon the outside of their 
uppermost garment, in a most emenent place thereof; 
and if they shalbe found at any time in any towne or 
place wthin the goverment wthout them so worne 
upon their uppermost garment as aforesd, that then 
the constable of the towne or place shall take them, or 



THEIR LAWS 195 

either of them, omitting so to wear the said two letters, 
and shall forthwth whip them for their negligence, 
and shall cause them to be immediately put on againe, 
and so worne by them and either of them ; and also 
that they shalbe both whipt at Yarmouth, publikely, 
where the offence was comitted, in such fitt season 
as shalbe thought meete by Mr Edmond Freeman & 
such others as are authorized for the keepeing of the 
Courts in these ptes. 

Under Bradford there was no double standard of 
morals. The man and the woman were punished 
alike for their offenses, — and expected alike to 
cherish a high moral code. 

Many and repeated whippings for sodomy are 
to be found in the records ; for this offense men 
sometimes appear to have been put on probation, 
too, in the interest of good behavior. But the 
very blackest pages in the social history of the 
Colony are undoubtedly those given over (in 1642), 
to the case of one Granger where, under the items 
charged up by John Holmes, Court Messenger, 
are to be found some charges for going to Scituate, 
for a latch on the prison door, for ten week's 
*'dyett", and "for executing Granger, and VIII 
beasts." This brings us to the horrible offense 
which so utterly discouraged Governor Bradford 
that several pages were devoted to it in the 
"History", as the good man tried to describe 
clearly yet in language which should not be too 
utterly revolting the crime for which Thomas 
Granger was tried and executed, a crime "horrible 



196 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

to mention", as the writer says, "but ye truth of 
ye historie requires it." The dumb partners of 
the youth's impurity were "kild before his face", 
according to the Levitican Law, " the catle being 
all cast into a great & large pitte that was digged 
of purposs for them, and no use made of any 
part of them." Thus a mare, a cow, two goats, 
five sheep, two calves, and a turkey, according to 
Bradford, — were solemnly executed in the interest 
of decency and Plymouth's morals. The Gov- 
ernor's comment on this horrible happening is 
well worth our attention. 

But it may be demanded how came it to pass that 
so many wicked persons and profane people should so 
quickly come over into this land, & mixe themselves 
amongst them? seeing it was religious men yt began 
ye work, and they came for religions sake. I confess 
this may be marveiled at, at least in time to come, 
when the reasons thereof should not be knowne; and 
ye more because here was so many hardships and wants 
mett withall. I shall therefore endeavor to give some 
answer hereunto. And first, according to yt in ye 
gospell, it is ever to be remembered, that wher ye Lord 
begins to sow good seed, ther ye envious man will 
endeavore to sow tares. 

2. Men beginning to come over into a wilderness, 
in which much labour and servise was to be done about 
building and planting &c, such as wanted help in yt 
respecte, when they could not have such as they would, 
were glad to take such as they could; and so, many 
untoward servants sundry of them proved, that were 
thus brought over, both men and woman kind : who. 



THEIR LAWS 197 

when their times were expired, became families of 
themselves, which gave increase hereunto. 

3. An other and a maine reason hereof was, that men 
finding so many godly disposed persons willing to come 
into these parts, some began to make a trade of it, 
to tranesport passengers & their goods, and hired ships 
for that end ; and then to make up their fraught and 
advance their profite, cared not who ye persons were, 
so they had money to pay them. And by this means 
the cuntrie became pestered with many unworthy 
persons, who being come over, crept into one place or 
other. 

4. Againe the Lord's blessing usually following his 
people, as well in outward as spiritual things, (though 
afflictions be mixed with all), doe make many to adhear 
to ye people of God, as many followed Christ, for ye 
loaves sake, John 6. 26. and a mixed multitud came 
into ye wildernes with ye people of God out of Eagipte 
of old, Exod. 12. 38 ; so allso ther were sente by their 
f reinds some under hope yt they would be made better ; 
others that they might be eased of such burthens, and 
they kept from shame at home yt would necessarily 
follow their dissolute courses. And thus, by one means 
or other, in 20 years time, it is a question whether ye 
greater part be not growne ye worser. 

One reason why so many crimes of a social 
nature are recorded was undoubtedly because the 
Pilgrims overdid in government supervision of 
private life. There was no single task to which 
the community set itself with greater diligence 
and enjoyment than that of watching one another. 
The truth is, of course, that because there were 



198 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

almost no amusements in Plymouth, and only 
scanty relief from the hard conditions of pioneer 
life, the people were so thrown in upon themselves 
as almost inevitably to become backbiting, self- 
centered, — and immoral. We find a man being 
punished, for instance, for working in his garden 
on Sunday; yet such work might very well have 
been encouraged as a necessary relaxation from 
the gloom of a Pilgrim Sabbath. Stephen Hop- 
kins, who kept the inn, was accused in 1637 of 
allowing men to drink in his hostelry *'on the 
Lord's Day before the Meeting be ended ", and 
allowing servants and others, both before and 
after meetings, to drink "more than for ordinary 
refreshing." The records show indeed that Hop- 
kins was rather constantly in trouble with his inn. 
Yet a little convivial drinking might not have 
been an unmixed evil under such conditions as 
obtained in Plymouth. 

Inns and the liquid refreshment they dispensed 
were, however, an adjunct of organized religion 
in early New England, and the intention was to 
keep them such. Licenses were given only when 
the location of the inn was sufficiently near the 
meetinghouse to make it possible for the liquor 
and the good fire to be conveniently enjoyed 
between the morning and the afternoon services. 
The inn here was far from being an institution for 
social relaxation as in the Old Country. Social 
relaxation, indeed, was conspicuous by its absence 
in Plymouth ; just as laws, more or less meticulous 



THEIR LAWS 199 

and quite consciously repressive, were conspicuous 
by their presence. 

Yet though it may seem to the reader of to-day 
that the penalties imposed upon those who broke 
the moral laws of Plymouth were extreme, they 
were, as a matter of fact, for that age compara- 
tively mild. As we have seen in a previous 
chapter, England had not developed far above 
the savage state in its conception of how to treat 
offenders. 

Another important function of the General Court 
was the granting of land. The Court likewise 
controlled the finances of the Colony and not 
only levied taxes but decided how much should be 
expended on each phase of government. Taxa- 
tion, like military service, had to be borne alike by 
the freeman and the mere inhabitant, a very early 
law preventing the freeman from taking advantage 
of his position as a legislator to secure exemption 
from or reduction of his taxes. These taxes were 
levied strictly in accordance with what a man was 
able to pay; but the very human tendency to 
evade taxation must have existed even in these 
early days, for, in 1676, the rules for rating various 
towns end with this significant sentence: *'If 
any have not given a true list of his estate, it may 
happily be discovered and made manifest by some 
of his neighbors." A Gilbertian provision against 
the evasion of taxes was to make the constable 
personally responsible if he neglected to collect 
amounts due. But Plymouth never levied either 



200 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

poll tax or an income tax, preferring to add to her 
revenue in later years by indirect taxation, the 
proceeds of which seem usually to have been 
devoted to some special work. Thus timber 
boards, planks and tar, oysters and iron, were all 
subject to an export duty. 

The extreme scarcity of coin in the Colony 
makes the financial side of the General Court's 
work colorful in retrospect, if difficult at the time. 
For taxes, like wages, had to be paid in kind, and 
when the treasurer had decided how much taxes 
were due, he had the job of collecting the cumber- 
some and perishable commodities which thus ac- 
crued. Thus the license fee for fishing at Cape 
Cod was collected by a special "water bayley." 
It was then appropriated to the support of the 
schools. The drift whales cast up upon the coast 
not inappropriately helped to defray the expense 
of maintaining the ministry. 

Most of the money raised was used for defense, 
though some of it went in pensions or as rewards 
for public service. We early find a record that 
Standish was paid for teaching the use of arms in 
Plymouth and Duxbury. By degrees the gratui- 
ties of certain ofiicials became so regular as to 
amount to a salary. 

One duty of the magistrates was that of per- 
forming marriages, and by reason of this the 
colonists soon got into difiiculties, as we shall see, 
with the Great Ones back in England. 

Each township had its own officials — a con- 



THEIR LAWS 201 

stable, selectmen, receivers of excise, a clerk to 
keep the registers — all elected by its own free- 
men. Towns might distribute and dispose of their 
lands, subject to the approval and occasional inter- 
ference of Plymouth ; they might make orders for 
themselves which were not repugnant to the 
general law, but each must possess a book of the 
laws of the Colony to "bee read oppenly once 
every yeare." They had their magistrates, one 
of whom was specially authorized to perform 
marriages in the district ; their selectmen were 
empowered to judge minor disputes, to enforce 
fines, to levy rates and to distrain for nonpayment. 
Each town had to provide itself with a place of 
defense, and to see that its inhabitants had the 
regulation supply of arms and attended the military 
trainings. Each was responsible for its own poor ; 
for the keeping of its boundaries ; the repair of its 
highways, bridges, and fences ; and in later years 
each was compelled by law to build a meeting- 
house at public cost, to enforce church attendance, 
to collect the maintenance of ministers, and to 
support a school. 

Thus the towns of Plymouth Colony possessed 
all the elements of self-government and were prac- 
tically in the position of small republics, just 
as the Dutch cities were. The early laws of 
Plymouth are chiefly interesting, indeed, for their 
adaptation of English and Dutch ideals to New 
England conditions. The town meeting was the 
scene of the citizen's greatest power, the school 



202 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

of his training, but local and central government 
were linked by the annual meeting of all freemen, 
by the sending of deputies from each town to the 
other meetings of the General Court, and by the 
right of townships to nominate candidates for the 
assistantship, who were voted on by the whole 
country. After the Confederation was formed 
in 1643, the General Court of the Colony was 
linked in its turn with the Government of New 
England through the meetings of the Board of 
Commissioners. Thus local and central govern- 
ment alike were in the hands of all who possessed 
the franchise. 

For more than thirty years Plymouth was 
fortunate enough to enjoy all the benefits of popular 
rule with very few of its drawbacks. And this 
for the reason that, from 1621 until his death in 
1657 — with the exception of about five years — 
William Bradford, who was a great soul with a 
genius for public office, was the executive head of 
the Colony. When he died, public spirit declined 
in power, and ideals as a dynamic disappeared in 
large measure. With the confusion of the duties 
of Church and State came a sense of greater 
danger from dissent and consequently harsher 
judicial decrees. Then the franchise was nar- 
rowed, and something resembling the sectarian 
oligarchy of Massachusetts Bay grew up in this 
settlement also. 

But Plymouth never put to death for opinion's 
sake as the Bay Colony did. When Mary Dyer, 



THEIR LAWS 203 

the Quaker, found her way to this town, she was 
"restored" to her husband in Rhode Island, and 
Thomas Greenleaf, who had brought her, was 
forced to pay the costs. Her martyr's blood 
stains Boston Common, — not Plymouth Rock. 



CHAPTER X 

HOW THEY ESTABLISHED "FREEDOM TO WORSHIP 

GOD" 

Scarcely had the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth ^ 
when it was decided that worship should be held 
in their 

** Timber fort both strong and comely 
With flat roof and battlements." 

To this building every Sunday the men and women 
made their way three in a row until they built 
their first *' meeting house" (in 1648) in the back 
of Bradford's garden at the foot of the hill below 
the fort. For the most part they were particular 
about calling this a meetinghouse, and so I sup- 
pose must we be. Cotton Mather has defended 
the stand they took on this by declaring that he 
"found no just ground in Scripture to apply such 
a trope as church to a house for public assembly" ; 
and he opposed as vigorously the tendency to call 
after the name of the congregation who worshipped 
in the meetinghouse the meetinghouse in which 

^ Religious meetings were held in the cabin of the Mayflower probably 
throughout the first winter; the first service in Plymouth was held in the 
"Common House" in March, 1621. 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 205 

they worshipped, as he did the even more insidious 
incHnation to call the Sabbath Sunday. 

The Pilgrims made better progress in setting up 
a place to worship than in securing a religious 
leader. William Brewster had been appointed 
Ruling Elder of the church before they left Hol- 
land, and during the earlier years of the Plymouth 
settlement worship was chiefly conducted under 
his ministrations. Some writers assert that Rob- 
inson was prevented by those in authority in 
England from coming over to join his people in 
the hope that without their pastor, these Sepa- 
ratists might fall back into the forms and the 
faith of the Established Church. However this 
may be, he did not come during the first years; 
and when he died in 1625, Brewster, who had been 
acting in his stead, continued so to act until 1629, 
when Ralph Smith, who had come over that year, 
became the first settled minister in Plymouth. 

Meanwhile it became quite evident that the 
authorities in England were not disposed to re- 
linquish without a struggle spiritual oversight of 
the Cape Cod Colony. Upon a certain Church of 
England clergyman, \Yilliam Morrel by name, were 
bestowed general powers of regulation and control 
over the religious affairs of the country. But he 
was treated in such a brotherly and friendly manner 
during the year he spent at Plymouth that instead 
of trying to control the Pilgrims in their worship, 
he put in his time studying anthropology among 
the Indians and accumulating observations on 



206 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

natural history ! It was only when he came to go 
away that he confided to Bradford the news of his 
ecclesiastical commission. Bradford says in this 
connection : "He had I know not what power and 
authority of superintendency over other churches 
granted him and sundry instructions to that end." 

With the name, not of Morrel but of Lyford, 
another Episcopal clergyman of ostensibly Sepa- 
ratist sympathies, is tied up the story of the first 
real religious difficulties that the Pilgrims encoun- 
tered. Lyford arrived in the spring of 1624, and, 
aided and abetted by John Oldham, really made a 
great deal of trouble. Oldham was one of a group 
of "particulars" brought over by the Anne in July, 
1623. These men had paid their own expenses, 
and on this account, perhaps, felt perfectly free to 
stir up all the trouble they wanted to in the Colony. 
At any rate they had no sooner landed than they 
began to sow disagreement among those who were 
not members of the Pilgrim Church. When John 
Lyford arrived the following spring and fell in 
with their game, the colonists found themselves 
with a real problem on their hands. 

The ship which brought Lyford brought also a 
series of complaints made by some returned "par- 
ticulars." Briefly these were : that there was 
much religious controversy in the Colony ; that 
family exercises on Sunday were neglected ; that 
both sacraments were disused ; that the children 
were not catechised or even taught to read ; that 
many of the "particular" members refused to 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 207 

work for the generals ; that the water was not 
wholesome ; that the ground was barren and 
would not bear grass ; that the climate was such 
that salt would not preserve fish ; that there was 
hardly a fish or wild fowl to be found ; that thieves 
abounded and so did wolves and foxes ; that the 
Dutch were intruding on the trade, and finally, 
that the people were much troubled with mos- 
quitoes ! To this rather miscellaneous assortment 
of criticisms, Bradford, when the ship returned 
some months later, sent a reply which is note- 
worthy as a fine mixture of gravity and satire. 

From the beginning down, he declared, there had 
been no controversy, public or private, on religious 
matters ; any neglect of family prayers on the 
Lord's Day would be rebuked, if known ; that they 
were deprived of their pastor and his ministration 
of the sacraments was grievous, for when with him 
they had the Communion every Sunday ; the chil- 
dren generally were taught in private families, and 
the Colony desired at once to begin "common 
school" for which a teacher and due support had 
been heretofore lacking; all the "particulars" do 
work for "generals" — willingly or unwillingly — ■ 
and will be taught to work well, or the plantation 
will rid itself of such; the water was "as good as 
any in the world, though not like the beer and 
wine of London which the grumblers so dearly 
love"; in England was no such grass and the 
cattle were already "fatt as need be", and would 
there were one animal for each hundred the grass 



208 THE DAYS OF THE PH^GRIM FATHERS 

would keep ; the matter of fishing was too absurd, 
in view of the great fishing fleet which visited the 
coast every year ; sundry thieves who had come in 
there had "smarted well for it", but if London had 
reared no thieves, none of them would have got 
over to trouble this Colony ; foxes and wolves were 
in many good countries, but poison and traps would 
thin them ; if the Dutch, with commendable energy, 
were getting a strong hold now they would get 
Plymouth too if the plantation should be broken 
up ; and, finally, men who could not endure a bite 
of a "mosquitoe" were too delicate for founding 
colonies. 

Lyford appears to have been a thoroughgoing 
scamp. Apparently the plotting Adventurers had 
made him their agent in the belief that by being 
*'in" on the councils of the Pilgrims and sending 
back to them reports which could be used to fur- 
ther their own purposes, real headway might be 
made in undermining the Separatist group and 
what they were endeavoring to do. As a first step 
toward currying favor, the newcomer offered to 
renounce his Episcopal ordination, declaring that 
he could consider himself no minister unless he 
were reordained by the people of Plymouth. 
Elder Brewster promptly set him right in this 
matter, assuring him that the Pilgrims had no 
desire to separate people from the Church of Eng- 
land, only from the world, and that they were 
willing to leave church enemies to care for them- 
selves. So it rested. Lyford was not chosen 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 209 

pastor, but he preached in turn with Brewster, and 
all went on well enough until, after some weeks, as 
the Charity was about to go back to England 
again, it was noted that the clerical and Oldham 
were writing great numbers of letters and having 
many talks together which apparently gave them 
much amusement. The occasion seemed to Brad- 
ford to call for the exercise of a judicious censor- 
ship; and since Captain William Peirce of the 
Charity was an earnest friend of the Colony, this 
was easily arranged. 

When the Charity set out on its return voyage, 
Bradford went with her, towing the shallop in which 
to sail back to land. Then the ship's captain put 
into his hands letters given to him by Lyford and 
Oldham, letters which contained reports that not 
only would not have enhanced the repute of the 
Pilgrims in England, but which, if brought to the 
attention of the Privy Council, might have led to 
an investigation with unfortunate results. 

It now appeared that a real plot had been 
hatched. For when confronted with chapter and 
verse concerning his perfidy, Oldham played his 
trump card and called upon the people, saying, 
"My maisters wher is your hearts? Now show 
your courage ; you have oft complained to me so 
and so, now is the time. If you will doe anything 
I will stand by you." Apparently Oldham was 
aiming at nothing less than a majority vote which 
would have made him Governor of the Colony ! 
He could then have appointed Lyford as minister, 



210 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and between them they might have made any 
change in the laws which they desired to make. 
To their chagrin not a man stood by them when 
the test came. Once more Bradford had tri- 
umphed superbly over his enemies. Of course 
the people quickly rendered a verdict condemning 
the culprit and justifying Bradford in the matter 
of intercepting the letters.^ Oldham was sen- 
tenced to leave the Colony at once, though his 
wife and family were to be allowed to remain 
throughout the winter or until he could make pro- 
vision for them. Lyford was given permission to 
remain six months longer, with the intimation that, 
if he should entirely reform, the sentence of expul- 
sion might be revoked. Later Oldham was so 
offensive when, returning without leave, he insulted 
all the authorities, that he had to be very sum- 
marily punished ; and Lyford, when proved guilty 
of loose conduct and very grave immorality not only 
since he had come to Plymouth but before that in 
England, was also dealt with as he deserved to be. 
The whole episode, to which many pages are 
devoted in Bradford's *' History ", is interesting in 
this connection chiefly because it served to unify 

1 It is interesting to note that in 1776 the Committee of Safety at Boston 
opened all letters coming from Halifax which were addressed to Tory inhab- 
itants. On at least one occasion they publicly announced that information 
which they used had come to them "by an intercepted letter." Copies 
were taken of some letters which Lyford had sent, the originals of the more 
important were kept, and copies of these sent on. So when Bradford 
returned, he had with him the evidence of treachery on the part of Lyford 
and Oldham and a little later was able to charge them, at a meeting of the 
General Court of the Colony, with what they had done. 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 211 

the spiritual interests of the men of Plymouth and 
to deepen and strengthen the religious zeal of 
many who had previously stood aloof from the 
church organization of the Colony. 

None the less some time passed before a suitable 
pastor was found. In 1628 a Mr. Richards was 
sent out from England, but as stated by Bradford 
it was found "on trial that he was erased in his 
braine so that they were forced to be at further 
charge to send him back again the next year." 
And Mr. Ralph Smith, who has been referred to as 
*'the first settled minister", while a graduate of 
the University of Cambridge and a man of learn- 
ing, failed to satisfy fully — though he served 
the Pilgrims at Plymouth for seven years — be- 
cause he was less distinctly of the Separatist 
persuasion than they wished their minister to be. 
From 1631 to 1634 Roger Williams acted as Mr. 
Smith's assistant, but finding the atmosphere of 
Plymouth too liberal for his taste, moved on to 
Salem. It is to be noted, however, that Williams 
not only was not expelled from Plymouth, as some 
have said, but has been accorded by Bradford this 
tolerant if not admiring paragraph in the "His- 
tory" : "He is to be pitied and prayed for, and so 
I shall leave the matter and desire the learned to 
show him his errors and reduc him in the way of 
truth and give him a setled judgment and con- 
stancie in the same ; for I hope he belongs to the 
Lord and that he will show him mercie." 

The next clergyman on the list is one John 



212 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Reynor, a graduate of Magdalen College, Cam- 
bridge, England, whose ministry continued until 
1654, or eighteen years in all. Under his direc- 
tion it was that the first meetinghouse built by 
the people of Plymouth was erected in 1648. 
Apart from the fact that Mr. Reynor built this 
meetinghouse, the thing of greatest interest in 
connection with his pastorate is that he had as his 
assistant while at Plymouth Charles Chauncey, a 
man of much more than average ability, who, 
though he gave the Pilgrims some great preaching, 
gave them also views of baptism which they found 
it difficult to accept. Chauncey was convinced 
that only by immersion could baptism be regarded 
as thoroughgoing and effective, and, while they 
were willing to let him cherish this view, the 
Pilgrims were not willing to accept it for them- 
selves. He was offered the alternative of remain- 
ing and baptizing after his own method as many as 
wished so to be baptized and administering the 
Communion by candlelight to all who preferred 
this time for partaking of the Last Supper. But he 
was not content with halfway measures and with- 
drew to Scituate. Later he became the second 
President of Harvard College. 

It began to look as if Plymouth never would 
find a minister wholly to its taste. There were 
long periods, indeed, during which, though there 
would be preaching, there was no settled pastor 
and no permanent occupant of the pulpit. In one 
of these iuterims Elder Thomas Cushman, who 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 213 

succeeded Elder Brewster, did good service in 
expounding the Word. Then after years of wait- 
ing, the man for the place was found in the person 
of John Cotton, Junior, — s, son of the famous 
divine, Reverend John Cotton of the Bay Colony, — 
who appears to have inherited no small measure 
of the ability of his father, and under whom in 
1669 the Church at Plymouth was thoroughly 
reorganized. His ministry, in that it takes the 
history of Plymouth on beyond the year 1692, 
when the old Colony was merged in the Bay Col- 
ony, suggests the place at which to drop these 
detached notes on the almost futile endeavors of 
the church leaders of Plymouth to import from 
England a minister who believed precisely as they 
did. Apparently there was no such person. 

It will be much more interesting and profitable 
to get, if we can, a glimpse of these Plymouth 
people at worship. Governor Winthrop has de- 
scribed for us a visit he made to Plymouth in 1632, 
which helps us somewhat to do this. This was at 
the time when Roger Williams was assisting Pastor 
Smith in his ministry. The visitors had come part 
of the way by boat and made the remaining dis- 
tance on foot. Bradford, Brewster, and others 
went out to meet them ; and after offering them 
entertainment, took them for their edification to 
the House of Worship. 

"On the Lord's Day," Winthrop writes, "was a 
sacrament which they did partake in and in the 
afternoon Mr. Roger W^illiams, according to their 



214 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

custom, propounded a question to which their 
pastor, Mr. Smith, spoke briefly. Mr. WiUiams j 
prophesied the topic he had submitted ; and after ' 
the Governor spoke to the question ; after him the 
Elder ; then some two or three more of the congre- 
gation. Then the Elder desired the Governor of 
Massachusetts and Mr. Williams to speak to it 
which they did. When this was ended, the Dea- 
con, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of 
the contribution, upon which the Governor and 
all the rest went down to the Deacon's seat and 
put into the bag, and then returned." 

Not quite so much color here as in the brief de- 
scription of the church life of the time which De 
Rasieres sent home in October, 1627 : 

Upon the hill they have a large square house with a 
flat roof, made of thick, sawn planks, stayed with oak 
beams, on the top of which are six cannons, which 
shoot iron balls of four and five pounds and command 
the surrounding country. The lower part they use for 
their church, where they preach on Sundays and the 
usual holidays. They assemble by beat of drum, each 
with his musket or firelock, in front of the Captain's 
door; they have their cloaks on and place themselves 
in order, three abreast, and are led by a sergeant with- 
out beat of drum. Behind comes the Governor in a 
long robe; beside him, on the right hand, comes the 
Preacher with his cloak on and on the left hand the 
Captain with his side-arms and cloak on and with a 
small cane in his hand ; and so they march in good 
order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus 
they are on their guard, night and day. 



The South part of New- England, as it is 
Planted this yeaie, 1634. 




FIRST ECCLESIASTICAL MAP OF NEW ENGLAND 

From Cotton Mather's "Magnalia." This earliest church survey of America shows 
by a cross the towns that had meeting-houses. 



■■»■>. ' "• 



P S A L M E Ciix. Cys, &c 

for thy commandments ctic fe have I. 
174 I long for thy ialvation, ^oicb 
and my delights in thy law ly. 
i7j Let my foule live, & fhew thy prayfc: 

help mec alio thy judgements let. ^ ^ 

i76 Like loft (hcLp ftrayd, thy fervanc Ccckct 
for I rhy laws doe not forget 
Pialme i a o. 
A fong of degrees. 

VNto the Lord, in my diftreCfc 
I cry*d, & he heard race. 
^ From iyinglipps&guilefull tongue, 
o Lord, my foule fct free, 

3 Wlut (hall thy falfe torque give to thecv 

or what on thee confer? 
♦ Sliarp arrows of the mighty ones, '1 

with co*les of juniper. I 

1 WocS mee, rhit I in Mclech doc 1 

a fojouHier rem line: j 

that I doc d.vcll in tents, which doc I 

to Kedar appcrtaine. | 

6 Long rime my foule hath dwelt with him 

that peace doth mudi abborrc, . 1 

7 I am tor peace, but when I ipeake^ ! 

they ready are for vrarre. 

/•ialme lai. i! 

A fong of degrees. t 

I To the hills lift up mine eyes, |» 

from whence fhall comt mine aid. % 

2 Mine help doth from lehovah comc^ I 

which jicav'n^ earth hath made 

Gg * I Hct 



A PAGE OF THE OLD BAY PSALM BOOK. 

From a first, edition copy in the posse-st^ion of the American Antiquarian Society, 
Worcester, Mass. 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 215 

No contemporaneous description of the Pilgrims 
at worship gives us any adequate idea of the kind 
of service that they used. Books were of course 
scarce, and participation in worship was neces- 
sarily difficult for those unable to read or not 
endowed with an excellent memory. In the Bay 
Colony it early became the custom to "line the 
psalms ", i.e. give the psalm out line by line before 
it was sung, but this practice was not introduced 
at Plymouth until 1681. Henry Ainsworth's ver- 
sion of the psalms which they had used in Holland 
was after a time abandoned for the Bay Psalm 
Book, and it would be a rash soul who should 
assert that this innovation brought to Plymouth 
worship additional dignity or beauty. 

The very first book printed in New England 
was this "Bay Psalm Book", now the rarest of all 
Americana, and, in some ways, the most interest- 
ing. Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, and John 
Eliot collaborated in the text of this volume, and 
President Dunster of Harvard College promptly 
put their verses into type upon a "printery" 
which cost fifty pounds and had been a gift of 
friends in Holland. 

Cotton Mather, in his "Magnalia", relates with 
evident appreciation the history of this epoch- 
making book : 

About the year 1639, the New-English reformers, 
considering that their churches enjoyed the other ordi- 
nances of Heaven in their scriptural purity, were willing 
that "The singing of Psalms " should be restored among 



216 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

them unto a share of that 'purity. Though they blessed 
God for the rehgious endeavors of them who translated 
the Psalms into the meetre usually annexed at the end 
of the Bible, yet they beheld in the translations so many 
detractions from, additions to, and variations of, not only 
the text, but the sense of the psalmist that it was an 
offense unto them. 

Resolving then upon a new translation, the chief 
divines in the country took each of them a portion to be 
translated ; among whom were Mr. Welde and Mr. 
Eliot of Roxbury, and Mr. Mather of Dorchester. 
These, like the rest, were so very different a genius for 
their poetry that Mr. Shephard, of Cambridge, in the 
occasion addressed them to this purpose : 

You Roxb'ry poets keep clear of the crime 
Of missing to give us a very good rhime. 
And you of Dorchester, your verses lengthen 
And with the text's own words, you will them 
strengthen. 

The Psalms thus turned into meetre were printed at 
Cambridge in the year 1640. But afterwards it was 
thought that a little more of art was to be employed 
upon them ; and for that cause they were committed 
unto Mr. Dunster, who revised and refined this trans- 
lation; and (with some assistance from Mr. Richard 
Lyon who, being sent over by Sir Henry Mildmay as 
an attendant unto his son, then a student at Harvard 
College, now resided in Mr. Dunster's house :) he 
brought it into the condition wherein our churches have 
since used it. Now though I heartily join with these 
gentlemen who wish that the poetry thereof were 
mended, yet I must confess, that the Psalms have 
never yet seen a translation that I know of nearer to the 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 217 

Hebrew original ; and I am willing to receive the excuse 
which our translators themselves do offer us when they 
say : "If the verses are not always so elegant as some 
desire or expect, let them consider that God's altar 
needs not our pollishings ; we have respected rather a 
plain translation, than to smooth our verses with the 
sweetness of any paraphrase. We have attended con- 
science rather than elegance, fidelity rather than in- 
genuity, so that we may sing in Zion the Lord's songs of 
praise, according unto his own will, until he bid us enter 
into our Master's joy to sing eternal hallelujahs." 

If Cotton Mather had exercised the same judi- 
cial mind and Christian charity when dealing with 
the witches as when dealing with the labors of his 
brother-ministers, his name would not to-day be 
anathema. The "Bay Psalm Book", no less than 
the witches, needed to be gently dealt with, though, 
for in place of the dignified rendering which the 
English Bible had given the Psalms of David, 
there appeared from the hands of the New Eng- 
land translators such verses as these : 

Likewise the heavens he down-bow'd 
And he descended, & there was 
under his feet a gloomy cloud 
And he on cherub rode and flew ; 
yea, he flew on the wings of winde. 
His secret place hee darkness made 
his covert that him round confinde. 

Reverend Elias Nason wittily says of this 
triumph in collaboration: "Welde, Eliot and 
Mather mounted the restive steed Pegasus, He- 



218 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

brew psalter in hand, and trotted in warm haste 
over the rough roads of Shemitic roots and metrical 
psalmody. Other divines rode behind, and after 
cutting and slashing, mending and patching, 
twisting, and turning, finally produced what must 
ever remain the most unique specimen of poetical 
tinkering in our literature." ^ 

One difiiculty with the church and church 
worship seems to have been that no proper provi- 
sion was made for the support of a minister. At 
first the piety of the people and the zeal of their 
religious leaders made it unnecessary that legal 
contracts should exist between them. The engage- 
ment between the minister and his congregation 
was held to be of a spiritual and not a civil char- 
acter, a thing which should not be discussed in 
terms of dollars and cents. But zeal alone could 
not furnish bread, and the wants of a minister were 
as definite as those of the people to whom he min- 
istered. In 1655 the Legislature proceeded to 
take steps insuring proper support of public wor- 
ship and fitting maintenance for ministers. In 
1657 a law was passed to the effect that "in what- 
soever township there is or shall be an able, godly, 
teaching ministry, which is approved by this 
Government . . . some men be chosen by the 
inhabitants, or in case of their neglect, chosen by 
any three or more of the magistrates to make a 
just and equal proportion upon the estates of the 
inhabitants according to their abilities to make 

^ Quoted from my "Social Life in Old New England." 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 219 

any such convenient . . . maintenance . . . for 
the ministers' comfortable attendance on his 
work." It is interesting in this connection to note 
that whereas the ministers had previously gathered 
the rates, this unpleasant adjunct of religious 
leadership was abolished in 1670, it being rec- 
ognized that such duties were unbecoming to the 
clergy and "might be an occasion to prejudice 
some persons against them and their ministry." 

Soon after the support of the minister had been 
provided for out of the public treasury, it was 
enacted (in June, 1675) that a meetinghouse 
should be erected in every town in the jurisdiction, 
and any town refusing or neglecting to do this 
might have a meetinghouse erected for them and 
then charged up against them. 

The Town Records all this while show that 
church life and community life touched each other 
intimately on many sides. We read that the 
Town Meeting fixes the minister's salary and votes 
to put "two Casements" in the meetinghouse be- 
tween the pulpit "to let in arre into ye house." 
Again it orders Thomas Phillips to build a gallery 
and "seat it with Town born children only." In 
1662 the Church at Plymouth provided that to 
"the able & godly minister among them should 
be given some part of every whale there cast up 
from the sea." 

On the other hand marriages, now considered 
to be primarily "church affairs", were not in early 
Plymouth days associated with church life and 



220 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

church interests at all, but were regarded as civil 
affairs only. Not until Plymouth was merged 
into Massachusetts were the clergy authorized to 
solemnize marriage. In this important department 
of life the Pilgrims adopted the view of the Dutch 
Calvinists ; they held that the Scriptures and the 
Primitive Christians had never authorized clergy- 
men to perform marriage services, but that on the 
contrary marriage, with its civil obligations and its 
connection with the rights of property as well as 
because of its business importance to the State, 
ought to be a strictly civil contract to be entered 
into before the magistrate. As a matter of fact 
they could not well do anything else, in that for so 
long a time, as we have seen, there was no minister 
in Plymouth. One great point made against 
Winslow, when Merry-Mount Morton sent back 
to Archbishop Laud his slanderous reports, was 
that he not only had publicly taught at the Sunday 
services, but that as a magistrate he had joined 
people in marriage. To which Winslow replied 
that he had taught when his brethren "wanted 
better means which was not often" ; and that as a 
magistrate he had conducted marriages. With 
perhaps more courage than wisdom he then pro- 
ceeded to defend this latter practice not only on 
the ground that the custom had long obtained in 
Holland — and that he, himself, had been so married 
there in 1617 — but urging further that he knew no 
Scriptural ground for confiding this office to the 
clergy. Laud's answer to this was to demand that 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 221 

the bold radical be committed to jail ; and this was 
done, Winslow being confined in the Fleet Prison 
for seventeen weeks at a time when Plymouth 
could not only not afford to pay for his residence 
in this unwholesome spot, but also could not 
afford to spare him from the care of various busi- 
ness matters which he had in hand for them at the 
time. 

How curiously confused some clerical minds 
were in regard to these things is shown by the fact 
that Richard Mather, father of Increase, whom 
Plymouth once wanted as a minister but did not 
succeed in obtaining (though he regarded his 
Episcopal ordination in England as "sin and 
folly"), preached regularly at funerals. Yet not 
once during the fifteen years that he served as a 
minister in Dorchester did he wear a surplice, — 
which caused an examining ecclesiastic to declare 
that this omission was worse than if he had had 
seven illegitimate children ! 

Funerals were almost always starkly severe in 
old Plymouth. Even when Bradford died there 
was no burial service, though the whole com- 
munity stood sadly and reverently by while the 
grave was filled. On this occasion volleys were 
fired and the Train Band did escort duty. A sim- 
ilar show of ceremony marked the interment of 
various other colonial functionaries. The omis- 
sion of any form of religious service at funerals was 
due to the fact that the Separatists were extremely 
fearful that church ceremonies over the dead 



222 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

would grow into prayers for their souls. The 
French Protestant churches definitely forbade 
prayer or sermon at funerals "to avoid super- 
stition." 

In less austere sections of New England funerals 
in time came to be festivals ; but not so in Plym- 
outh. Though when the body of Titus Way- 
mouth was interred in 1656 at the expense, for 
some reason or other, of the town, the concluding 
item on the bill which has come down to us sug- 
gests that the comforts of the tavern were just 
beginning to palliate the gloom of the funeral 
ofiice. This bill reads : 

Item. — For a winding sheet, 5 yards of £ s. d. 

lockorum & thread .... 8 5 

Coffin 080 

Digging Grave 3 

Clerk of Court 2 6 

Tavern Charges 12 

1 13 11 

The Plymouth Pilgrims never persecuted those 
who differed from them religiously. To be sure, 
they prevented the Quakers from settling among 
them, but this they did not so much because they 
objected to the Quakers' theological views, as 
because they objected to the extraordinary manner 
in which these zealots then found it necessary to 
conduct themselves. It was naturally disturbing 
to the life of a town to have women appearing at 
public meetings without any clothes on, as the 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 223 

Quakers occasionally did, just out of sheer religious 
enthusiasm; and it was also disturbing to have 
them constantly interrupt preachers whom other 
people were desirous of hearing. So they were 
banished from Plymouth, and when some of them 
persisted in their course, imprisoned. This was 
as near persecution as the Plymouth Colony came. 
In the same way they put up with the vagaries of 
Roger Williams much longer than some other sets 
of people did ; and in the witchcraft delusion only 
two persons were even tried at Plymouth, and both 
of these were acquitted. 

The first law enacted against the Quakers in 
Plymouth was in 1657. This was an act forbid- 
ding the bringing of Quakers into the colony by 
a resident on pain of twenty shillings' fine a week 
for every week the prohibited person remained 
within the jurisdiction of the colony. It was a 
law inspired by the Massachusetts Bay people, 
who had suffered much at the hands of these 
enthusiasts. Subsequently another law was made 
which carried with it "added prohibitions and 
increased penalties." Now it was made a crime 
not only to bring Quakers into the Colony, but 
knowingly to harbor them after they had come. 
The fine for this offense was five pounds or a 
whipping. In 1658 a law was passed disfran- 
chising Quakers, and as they were wandering up 
and down the land without any lawful calling, a 
House of Correction was built^ in which, under the 
charge of vagabondage, they might be locked up 



224 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and set to work. Officers of the State were at 
this time authorized to " seize all the books and 
writings in which the doctrines and creeds of the 
Quakers were contained." When Lawrence and 
Cassandra Southwick and Mary Dyer found their 
way to Plymouth, the penalty of death for people 
of this faith was being contemplated. 

Here, however, legal authority interposed in the 
interest of humanity. Members of the Society of 
Friends on the other side of the Atlantic appealed 
to Charles II on behalf of their prosecuted brothers 
in America, and promptly all the governors of New 
England received notice that there must be no 
more prosecutions and no more hangings of "those 
people called Quakers", but that all cases in which 
they were involved must be transferred to Eng- 
land for trial and final disposition. Thus it may 
happily be written down that no Quaker was put 
to death in the Plymouth Colony. 

The same may be said of witches. England 
and Scotland were burning and hanging witches 
right and left at the time that the Pilgrims were 
making laws and learning how to live happily in 
Plymouth; and the terrible story of witch perse- 
cution in the Bay Colony constitutes of course 
the blackest chapter in the history of that settle- 
ment. People were commonly convinced that 
witches existed. Sir Matthew Hale said that *'he 
did not in the least doubt there were witches." 
A century later Lord Mansfield, a liberalist in his 
religious views if not in his politics, expressed the 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 225 

same opinion. So that, as Palfrey says, it was not 
to be expected of the colonists of New England 
that they should be the first to see through a delu- 
sion which had befooled the whole civilized world 
and the greatest and most knowing persons in it. 
We have seen that witchcraft was made one of the 
capital crimes named in the Plymouth laws of 
1636. In this respect the Colony was not unlike 
the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, Manhattan, Virginia, Maryland, 
and Pennsylvania, but it was unlike some of these 
others in that there were very few witches within 
its bounds, and that the authorities were definitely 
indisposed to convict persons charged with the 
crime of witchcraft. 

As a matter of fact, only two cases were ever 
brought to trial in Plymouth, and no witch was 
ever executed here. Bradford nowhere refers to 
witchcraft. So, though the Pilgrims were not 
superior to their times, in that they recognized 
witchcraft to the extent of making it a capital 
offense in their laws, they were extraordinary in 
that they never punished these poor deluded folk 
as they might have been able under their laws 
to do. 

One feels that Bradford, with his broad human 
outlook and his sense of humor, might have been 
able to deal more wisely than his successor, Thomas 
Prence, did with the problem created by the 
Quakers. Prence had come to Plymouth in 1621 
on the Fortune, and having married the daughter 



226 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

of William Collier, richest nian in the Colony, and 
served for a number of years as Bradford's assist- 
ant, was a natural person to succeed the first 
Governor at the end of his long reign. The prob- 
lem of the Quakers was the first one with which he 
had to grapple. In March, 1657, one of this 
brotherhood entered the jurisdiction from Rhode 
Island and was promptly ejected. Several weeks 
later another appeared and was also ejected. But in 
neither case was there any violence or any penalty 
imposed. Then came some Quakers who "talked 
back" to Governor Prence ; and this was not to be 
borne. The Court Records tell the tale vividly : 

At this Court, Humphrey Norton and John Rouse, 
two of those called Quakers, appeered, and psented 
themselves in the towne of Plymouth on the first of 
June, 1658, contrary to a law enacted prohibiting any 
such to come into the coUonie, and were apprehended 
and committed to ward untill Thursday, the third of 
June, 1658, at which time they were psented before the 
Court and examined, and behaved themselves, in 
speciall Humphry Norton, turbulently, and said unto 
the Gov sundry times, "Thou lyest;" and said unto 
him, "Thomas, thow art a mallicious man;" in like 
manor the said John Rouse behaved himselfe in his 
words unto the Court unworthyly ; and soe were re- 
turned unto the place whence they came untill Saterday, 
the fift of June, att which time the said Norton and 
Rouse were againe sent for unto the Court ; att which 
Court whereas formerly Christopher Winter had de- 
posed to a paper containing sundry notoriouse errors 
expressed by the said Norton, and by him desired to bee 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 227 

enquired into, a coppy of the said paper was delivered 
unto him in the Court, and hee was demaunded by the 
said Winter whether hee would deney any of those 
pticulares therin contained; and liberty was given by 
the Court, that in case hee, the said Norton, would, 
both hee and the said Winter might returne to the 
prison, with three or foure men with them, to see and 
take knowlidg wherein they differed; and accordingly 
this was done, and a returne made of very little differ- 
ence betwixt what Winter affeirmed and the said Norton 
owned. 

Moreover, at the same time, the said Norton againe 
carryed very turbulently, saying to the Gov, "Thy 
clamarouse toungue I regard noe more then the dust 
under my feet; and thou are like a scoulding woman; 
and thou pratest and deridest mee," or to the like 
effect, with other words of like nature, and tendered a 
writing, desirouse to read it in the Court ; to the which 
the Gov replyed, that if the paper were directed to him, 
hee would see it before it should bee openly read ; the 
said Norton refused to deliver the said paper to the 
Gov, and soe it was prohibited to bee read. 

At the same time the said Humphrey Norton and 
John Rouse were required severally, that as they pro- 
fessed themselves to bee subjects to the state of Eng- 
land, that they would take an oath of fidelitie to bee 
true to that state ; which they refused to doe, saying 
they would take noe oath att all. In fine, the said 
Humphrey Norton and John Rouse were centanced, 
according to the law, to be whipped ; the which the same 
day accordingly was pf ormed ; and the under marshall 
requiring his fees, they refuseing to pay them, they 
were againe returned to bee in durance untill they 



228 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

would pay the same; where they remained until the 
tenth of June, 1658, and so made composition in som 
way with the said marshall, and soe went away. 

The fact is that the Pilgrims really made an 
honest effort to give to others that freedom in 
matters religious they themselves had sought to 
find in coming to New England. Therein they 
differed radically from the Puritans. No Amer- 
ican has stated this difference more clearly than 
the late George Frisbie Hoar. "The Massachu- 
setts Bay Puritan," he says, "had a capacity for 
an honest hearty hatred, of which I find no trace in 
Pilgrim literature." "A personal devil," he adds 
humorously, "must have been a great comfort to 
our Massachusetts ancestors, as furnishing an 
object which they could hate with all their might 
without violation of Christian principles." ^ 

Charity was in very truth the great quality with 
which the Pilgrims were abundantly endowed and 
which the men who settled in and about Boston 
lacked. To understand this it is only necessary 
to compare what Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich says, 
in his "Simple Cobbler of Agawam", with the 
farewell counsel of John Robinson as reported by 
Winslow. "It is said," writes Ward, "that men 
ought to have liberty of conscience, and that it is 
persecution to debar them from it. I can rather 
stand amazed than reply to this. . . . No man is 
so accursed with indelible infamy as authors of 
heresies." 

^ Pilgrim Society Celebration : 1895, 



FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD 229 

John Robinson, spiritual head of the Pilgrims, 
on the other hand charged his followers, as they 
were about to sail for the New World, before God 
and His blessed angels, "to follow him no further 
than he followed Christ ; and if God should reveal 
anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be 
as ready to receive it as we were to receive any truth 
by his ministry; for he was very confident the Lord 
had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His 
Holy Wordr 

This, the Pilgrims' declaration of religious inde- 
pendence, is worthy to stand side by side with the 
opening sentences of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Not without its effect on the character 
and ideals of the men who sailed to America in the 
Mayflower had been those eleven years spent under 
the liberal and democratic influences of Holland ! 
W^ere the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay united 
Church and State and, in the early days, admitted 
none but freemen to be church members. Church 
and State were always separate in Plymouth. 
And equally important with the idea of civil and 
religious liberty, which the Pilgrims brought with 
them from Holland, was their enduring respect 
for the Golden Rule. So we find the Pilgrims 
quite without the intolerance and religious bigotry 
which darken so many pages of Massachusetts 
Bay history. On this account it may really be 
said of them that they established at Plymouth 
"freedom to worship God." 



CHAPTER XI 

SOME EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 

If one could read but a single volume concerning 
the history of Plymouth, that volume should be 
Bradford's own book, which tells this simple but 
thrilling story from the inception of the Colony 
down to the year 1647. Here we find the foun- 
dation on which, supplemented by a few minor 
authorities, all subsequent narratives of the voyage 
of the Mayflower^ all accounts of the previous his- 
tory of those who sailed in her, and all descriptions 
of the early years of the colony which they founded 
are based. The work has been reproduced in 
various editions (including an edition issued by the 
State of Massachusetts) ; but next to the original 
manuscript itself, which may be seen in the State 
Library, the one of most outstanding interest is 
the facsimile reproduction from that manuscript 
for which John Andrew Doyle, a fellow of All 
Souls College, Oxford, has supplied an extremely 
scholarly and very interesting introduction. 

The facts concerning Bradford's early life, as 
cited by Mr. Doyle in this place, were almost all 
ascertained by the late Joseph Hunter from an 



l!J^^ jphjfA&on. 









cris (\ cJAcr -faii :i„CjeS ^.4s Jlci7,^ /c^-^.'! An A^'if^""/'''-'''''^ f"^ 

l,<f. y^.-^yyK-ffvudij'i '^J'trv/lfeSC, £iJ.-f Ma.i ■/»«/ Itjfza' /e /a4t t^^'^J^ 

I ,., ,..,. ;, .y .a«.s I'i>^\<^t^el ■>vMf£j:,o'^- ^//.'^farArts^ 

\-iht Cct-^-^'c o/J' 'I'f/V"^^ -'^^"■^ '^'"^ t-/ ^escd/y- I'u.eirAfrcA 7i-iA 
I 1-/* /^en Aef't^'^ ^"J^t"" !Zr-rou.i-S Af.i-eAie^i ^ a.rii Tvot^M'hr/'^iCf 

;fj .iMf'/f -.r«/'u« r/i^rf ft'^rnjtd- «S ^»<« o«^ /'X^^' Lc-n4^^xi^i^Q_ 
C,t/« >! /^•'At»- c ccifton^afl'ui^^ixjn^ MefA^ ^'/^jT^ r^ or ^wnSt 

jtiiJi . guen it4Ais d^^ • So AS in y itTicit"/' h'x.ti/Ai pirJccuA 



^♦ac^j " ' ■ fc^i ::^^ -"' 



THE ITKST PAGE OF THE BRADFORD MANUSCRIPT 

Now in tlu--Lil„-a,yIof the State House. Massachusetts. 




('opi/ri(jhl. 1<)()2. .1. N. liurhatik, Pli/mnnth, .l/d.t.s 
HKA1)1-(»R1) HdlSE, KINGSTON. 1(>7.3 




Copyritihl, 1002, A. S. Biirhank-, I'hj incut h, Mass. 
JOHN ALDKN HOUSE, DUXBURY, 1653 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 231 

examination of the parish register at Austerfield 
in England, and were by Mr. Hunter embodied in 
a monograph entitled, ''Collections concerning the 
early History of the Founders of Port Plymouth", 
published in London in 1849 ^ and now rather rare. 
These researches make it clear that William Brad- 
ford was born in Austerfield in Yorkshire, March 
19, 1590, the son of William Bradford, who mar- 
ried Alice Hanson in June, 1584. The elder 
William died in July, 1591, and though the date 
when Bradford's mother died is not known, Cotton 
Mather declares in the "Magnalia" that Bradford 
was deprived of both his parents when young and 
left to the care of his grandparents. Mather also 
tells us that the youth succeeded to a comfortable 
inheritance in land and would naturally have been 
brought up to husbandry; but that weak health 
rather inclined him towards study and religion. On 
this account, very likely, he fell the more easily 
under the influence of Richard Clifton's non- 
conforming congregation, which made its head- 
quarters at Scrooby, three miles from Austerfield. 
According to Mather, Bradford was one of the 
group which in 1607 made an attempt to escape to 
Holland, an attempt which was thwarted by the 
officers of the law and led to the imprisonment of 
several of the would-be fugitives, including their 
chief. Elder Brewster. 

The dramatic migration of the following year 

1 The substance of this was also published by the same author in the 
Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, Fourth Series, vol. I. 



232 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

has already been pictured. Its chief interest hes, 
of course, in the fact that it is the initial step in the 
continuous corporate history of the Pilgrims, who, 
whether journeying from Scrooby to Amsterdam, 
from Amsterdam to Leyden, or from Leyden to 
the shores of America, were all the time attempting 
to found not simply a church but also what we now 
know as a New England township, — a place, that 
is, in which they could work out an experiment in 
self-government, which should grow and endure 
throughout the years. *' Through their early days 
of cold and hunger, of toil and discouragement, 
whether in Amsterdam, in Leyden, or in Plymouth, 
Brewster, Bradford, and their followers were en- 
deavoring not merely to win an inheritance for 
themselves and their children, but to lay the 
foundations of New England." 

A striking characteristic of Bradford as a biog- 
rapher is his omission from the graphic pages of 
his "History" of all details concerning himself. 
Thus he makes absolutely no mention of the 
drowning of his wife, Dorothy Bradford, about 
three weeks after their arrival in Plymouth. 
What we know about this and about their one son 
left in Holland, who afterwards came out to 
Plymouth, we owe to a register of the first emi- 
grants kept by him and appended to the manu- 
script.^ 

On August 14, 1623, Bradford was again married, 

^ This appendix appears as an appendix in this volume also, under the 
heading "Who's Who of the Mayflower cabin list." 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 233 

his second wife being the widow of Edward South- 
worth. The fact that this marriage took place 
just a fortnight after the lady's arrival in America 
gives color to the tradition that there had been 
an early attachment between the pair. All that 
we actually know about the matter, though, is 
that the second Mrs. Bradford (born Alice Car- 
penter) was the mother of two daughters and one 
son ; and that the latter, named William like his 
father, became in 1682 deputy-governor of the 
Commonwealth, held that office for five years con- 
tinuously, and again in 1691, and also served 
several times as a commissioner for Plymouth in 
the confederation of the New England colonies. 
On one of the blank leaves of the priceless Brad- 
ford manuscript this son and his son are immor- 
talized in the following paragraph : 

"this book was rit by govener William bradford 
and given to his son mager William Bradford and 
by him to his son mager John Bradford, rit by me 
Sanuel bradford — mach 20, 1705." 

Besides the "History", we have from Brad- 
ford's pen, written the year in which the "History" 
ends, a w^ork called "A Dialogue or the sum of a 
Conference Between some young men born in New 
England and sundry ancient men that came out 
of Holland and Old England, Anno Domini, 1648." 
This is a short sketch in defense of the principles 
and customs of the Puritans, with biographical 
notices of a few leading Nonconformists, such as 
Clifton and Robinson. The dialogue form adds 



234 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

nothing to the charm of the style ; rather the 
reverse. But when Bradford died, he left this 
writing behind him in manuscript, and it was used 
and copied into the Plymouth Church Records by 
his nephew Nathaniel Morton. Alexander Young 
reprinted it in 1848 in his useful volume. Brad- 
ford also left behind him a Letter Book containing 
copies of letters of public interest which he wrote 
or which were written to him.^ 

A very interesting Bradford letter characterized 
by Roland G. Usher as "the only original letter of 
the period which seems to have survived ", was 
written by Bradford to Allerton on September 8, 
1623, in regard to conditions in Plymouth. This 
letter was discovered among a mass of unarranged 
and uncalendared papers in the Public Record 
Office in London. It has been reprinted in the 
American Historical Review ^ and is of particular 
value in that it reveals the brave showing that 
Bradford was then making in the face of untoward 
conditions in Plymouth. The Dutch and the 
French, it appears, were able to trade much more 
advantageously with the Indians than the Pil- 
grims could because they could give them in ex- 
change not "toyes and trifles, but good and sub- 

^ Nothing brings out more clearly the difficulties connected with the 
preservation of old manuscripts than such a story as goes with the rescue 
of this Letter Book. Near the close of the eighteenth century James Clark 
of Boston found the remains of the book in a baker's shop at Halifax, N. S., 
where three hundred and thirty-eight of its leaves had already been used as 
wrapping paper. The rescued portion is printed in the First Series, vol. 
Ill of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. 

2 Vol. 8, p 294. 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 235 

stantial cmodities as ketkles, hatchets, and clothes 
of all sorts ; yea, the French doe store them with 
biskay, shalopes, fitted both with sails and ores, 
with which they can either row or saile as well as 
we ; as also with peices, powder and shot for fowling 
and other services . . . also I know upon my 
owne knowledg many of the Endeans to be as well 
furnished with good ketkels, both strong and of a 
large size, as many farmers in england." 

In this same communication Bradford writes : 
"With these our leters we have sent unto you one 
of our honest freinds, Edward Winslow by name, 
who can give you beter and more large Informa- 
tion of the state of all things than we can pos- 
siblie doe by our letters ; unto whom we referr you 
in all partickulars ; and also we have given him 
Instrucktion to treat with you of all such things as 
consceirn our publick good and mutuall concord ; 
expecting his return by the first fishing shipps." 
That much money might be made in New England 
by fishing, Bradford reasserts in this letter; but 
he also points out that "it would be a principall 
stay and a comfortable help to the Colonic if they 
had some catle" and that "espetialy goats are 
very fite for this place, for they will here thrive 
very well, are a hardly creature, and live at no 
charge, ether, wenter or sommer, their increas is 
great and milke very good, and need little looking 
toe." He ends his plea for cattle with the reit- 
erated statement that "the Colonic will never be 
in good estate till they have some." 



236 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

This is the letter in which Bradford categorically 
corrects the impression that women and children 
were allowed to vote in Plymouth. Somehow the 
idea had gone abroad that the franchise privileges 
were being too liberally exercised, and Bradford 
says : "Touching our Governemente you are mis- 
taken if you think we admite woemen and children 
to have to do in the same, for they are excluded, 
as both reason and nature teacheth they should be ; 
neither doe we admite any but such as are above 
the age of 21 years, and they also but only in some 
weighty maters, when we think good." Toward 
the end of the communication there is a rather 
pathetic reference to the difficulties of holding 
things together "amongst men of so many humors 
and feares of so many kinds.'* Obviously it was 
no small job to be Governor of the Plymouth 
Colony in 1623 ! 

Taken from Plymouth on the Little James, this 
very valuable missive was long lost because the 
ship in question was seized for debt upon its 
arrival in England. Nearly every manuscript of 
the period, indeed, has connected with it a tale of 
disappearance and recovery almost as long as the 
piece of writing concerned. That connected with 
the disappearance of Bradford's "History" is full 
of romance and must be retold here even at the 
risk of tiring some readers who already know it 
well. 

The author left the work in manuscript. In 
1669, Bradford's nephew, Nathaniel Morton, pub- 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLY^IOUTH 237 

lished a chronicle which made it quite plain that 
there was somewhere in existence a book which 
Bradford himself had written about the early days 
in Plymouth. Beside Morton, three other New 
England historians admitted indebtedness to this 
book : Thomas Prince, who in 1730 published a 
chronological history of New England ; Hubbard, 
who left a manuscript history, which was first 
published in 1815 ; and Thomas Hutchinson, 
Governor and historian of Massachusetts, who in 
an appendix to his second volume, dealing with the 
affairs of Plymouth, credits copious extracts to 
what he entitles "Bradford Manuscript." 

Yet the manuscript itself was nowhere to be 
found until it was discovered, almost by accident, 
through the fact that in 1846 Bishop Wilberforce 
published a small "History of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in America", which chanced to 
fall into the hands of Mr. John Barry, then en- 
gaged in writing a history of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Barry was struck by the fact that certain passages 
cited as from a "Manuscript History of the Plan- 
tation of Plymouth &c, in the Fulham Library" 
were identical with fragments of Bradford's work 
as he had seen it reproduced by Morton and 
Prince. The discovery was communicated to the 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
Charles S. Deane ; the clue was assiduously followed 
up, and the manuscript in question proved to be 
no other than Bradford's own autograph of his 
history. Then for the first time we had accessible 



238 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the story of the economic struggles and difficulties 
which beset the settlers, lacking which we should 
have been without any rounded conception of 
Bradford's abilities as an administrator during the 
very important years when the corporate and or- 
ganic life of the Colony was in the making. 

The original manuscript, strongly bound in 
vellum, is now preserved in the Library of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, having been 
brought back to Massachusetts in 1897 through 
the good offices of the late Senator George Frisbie 
Hoar of that state with the help of Thomas 
Francis Bayard, first American Ambassador to 
Great Britain. It is here examined with great 
interest by hundreds of visitors to Massachusetts 
each year. 

Another early production, literary in intent if 
not in actuality, is the book written by Brad- 
ford's nephew, to which allusion has already been 
made. Perhaps the most colorful thing about this 
volume is the way in which its publication was 
financed. 

The Pilgrims were peculiarly direct in the 
matter of carrying through any project they 
planned, and one thing on which they early set 
their heart was the writing and publishing of a 
comprehensive and formal history of the first half- 
century of the settlement of the colonies of Plym- 
outh and Massachusetts Bay. So at a Court 
held in Plymouth on March 5, 1667, it was ordered 
"that whereas a certain Indian appertaining to 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 239 

our jurisdiction is now held at Boston for matter 
of fact, and that there is probabihty of a tender 
of some land for his ransome from being sent to 
the Barbadoes, that in case the said land be 
tendered to acceptance that it shall be improved 
and expended for the defraying of the charge of the 
printing of the book entitled 'New England's 
MemorialL' " A little more than a year later 
Plymouth appropriated "the sume of twenty 
pounds in countrey pay toward this same ex- 
pense", recommending at the same time that the 
several towns under the jurisdiction of the Plym- 
outh General Court make "a free and voluntary 
contribution in money for and toward the procur- 
ing of paper for the printing of said book." At 
the same time it was provided that arrangements 
be made with Samuel Green "to print it if he will 
do it as cheap as the other and for the number of 
copies to do as he shall see cause." On July 3, 
1669, it was ordered "that the Treasurer, in the 
behalf of the country, is to make good a barrel of 
merchantable beef to Mr. Green, the printer at 
Cambridge, which is to satisfy what is behind 
unpaid for toward the printing of the book called 
*New England's Memorial', which barrel of beef is 
something more than is due by bargain for the 
court is willing to allow it in consideration of his 
complaint of a hard bargain about the printing of 
the book aforesaid." 

To the student of New England's history, the 
book which resulted from these transactions neces- 



240 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

sarily possesses a unique value as the first pub- 
lished account by a contemporary writer of the men 
who made Plymouth history from 1620 to 1669, 
and that, too, written by one who had a personal 
and official knowledge of the men and measures 
he described. Moreover, it is in this book that 
there first appeared in print the names of the 
vessels the Mayflower and the Speedwell, whose 
history is bound up with the tempestuous voyage 
of the Pilgrims across the Atlantic. 

Although the publication of Bradford's *' His- 
tory" has taken from the "Memoriall" the value 
which so long attached to it, it still remains of 
interest because Morton himself came to Plymouth 
with his father in the Anne in July, 1623 (being 
at that time a boy about eleven years old), and 
grew up in close and intimate relations with 
William Bradford. This because Bradford's 
second wife, Alice Carpenter, was his aunt, his 
mother's sister. His father was George Morton, 
commonly accepted as the G. Mourt whose name 
appears signed to the preface of "Mourt's Rela- 
tion." This work it is which has preserved for us 
Bradford and Winslow's "Journal", a diary of 
events from the arrival of the Mayflower to the 
return of the Fortune in December. "Good news 
from New England" by Edward Winslow, which 
brings the story down to September 10, 1623, was 
published in 1624. Next followed Winslow's 
"Brief Narrative of the true grounds of cause of 
the first planting of New England", which took 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 241 

the story through 1623, but which was first printed 
at London in 1646. 

So that at the time of the pubhcation of Na- 
thaniel Morton's book, there was no narrative 
history of Plymouth Colony of a later date than 
1623. To Morton, therefore, fell the task of record- 
ing the story of the settlement of New England, 
the causes which lay behind the immigration to 
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, and the devel- 
opment of the colonies during the privations and 
sufferings of their early years. By personal ac- 
quaintance with the official records which he kept 
for forty years, he knew the minute details of the 
Pilgrims' lives, and it was evidently thought that 
he would incorporate a good deal of this into his 
book. That he did not do so is a great loss. 
None the less, the work has its value and interest, 
even in these days when we have the rediscovered 
Bradford manuscript to draw upon, and no stu- 
dent of early New England should fail to look up 
the first edition as published in facsimile by The 
Club of Odd Volumes of Boston. There is inspira- 
tion, too, for us of to-day in the closing paragraph 
of "TheMemoriall": 

I shall close up this small history with a word of 
advice to the rising generation, That as now their godly 
predecissors have had large Experience of the goodness 
and faithfulness of God, for the space of near Fourty 
six years (some of them) and have passed under various 
dispensations, sometimes under great afflictions, other 
while the sun shining upon their Tabernacles in wayes 



242 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

of peace and prosperity, and yet notwithstanding, 
through the grace of Christ, the most of them have held 
their integrity in his wayes. That so, such as succeed 
them would follow their examples, so farr as they have 
followed Christ ; that it might not be said of them, as it 
is to be feared it may be, by what yet appears amongst 
many of them, that indeed God did once plant a noble 
vine in New England, but it is degenerated into the 
plant of a strange vine. It were well that it might be 
said, that the rising generation did serve the Lord all 
the days of such as in this our Israel, are as Joshua's 
amongst us and the Elders that over lived him, which 
have known all the works of the Lord which he hath 
done for their fathers. But if yet notwithstanding 
afterwards such shall forget, and not regard those his 
great Works here presented before them (besides many 
more that I hope by some others may come to their 
view) be they assured, He will destroy them and not 
build them up. Oh therefore, let the truly godly in 
this land, be incited by the example of Moses, as the 
mouth of the Church to pray earnestly and incessantly 
unto the Lord, that his work may yet appear to his 
servants, and his glory unto their children ; and that 
he would pour out his Spirit upon his Church and 
people in New England, and his blessing upon their 
offspring, that they may spring up as among the grass, 
and as the willows by the water courses ; that so great 
occasion there may be thereby of taking notice thereof 
in succeeding generations, to the praise and glory of 
GOD. So be it. 

This "Memoriall" is also valuable because it 
has preserved for us the anagrams and elegiac 
verses of many old New England worthies. It 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 243 

is to this source, for instance, that two famous 
productions of Governor Dudley's pen are to be 
traced. 

Dim eyes, deaf Ears, cold stomack, shew. 
My dissolution is in view, 
Eleven times seven year liv'd have I, 
And now God calls, I willing die ; 
My shuttle's shot, my race is run, 
My Sun is set, my Deed is done ; 
My span is measur'd, Fate is told. 
My Flower is faded, and grown old. 
My Dream is vanished, Shadow's fled. 
My Soul with Christ, my Body dead. 
Farewell, dear Wife, Children, Friends, 
Hate Heresie, make blessed ends ; 
Bear Poverty, live with good men. 
So shall we meet with joy agen. 

And the following gem : 

Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch 

O're such as do a Toleration hatch, 

Lest that ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice, 

To poison all with Heresie and Vice, 

If men be left and otherwise combine. 

My Epitaph's, I dy'd no Libertine. 

Both these productions, Morton tells us, were 
found in Governor Dudley's pocket after his 
death and serve not only to illustrate the great 
man's character but to give us a taste of his 
*' poetical fancy" ! 

Another contemporaneous source of information 



244 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

which is not without value, though it is pretty 
dull reading, is "Plain Dealing or News from New 
England" from the pen of Thomas Lechford. 
Lechford was an English lawyer who lived for 
some years in Boston, and who also visited for a 
period in Plymouth. He devotes a chapter of his 
book to the Indians and has left us some valuable 
pages of critical insight concerning the unfairness 
of the strictures directed against the Plymouth 
men for their lack of church conformity. 

When John Smith cruised along the coast of 
England in 1614, he made some observations which 
led to the earliest fairly accurate map of Massa- 
chusetts Bay; and four years later he published 
the first edition of his record of commercial adven- 
tures in the new world under the title "New Eng- 
land Trials", meaning by that word "ventures." 
Another product of Smith's pen is his "General 
History", which collectors of Americana are 
always extremely interested to secure. Similarly 
interesting to those who are keen in the pursuit 
of early books on old New England are the records 
contained in the conglomerate work of Samuel 
Purchas issued in 1625 — under the title of "Pur- 
chas's Pilgrims" — in which over twelve hundred 
separate narrators of the world's explorations tell 
their own stories, including such as had a story to 
tell about observations along the New England coast. 
This material may be seen at the Boston Athenaeum, 
though Purchas's works are extremely rare. 

Another contemporaneous writer who cannot be 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 245 

ignored is Thomas Morton, lawyer and vagabond 
— wont to describe himself as "of Clifford's Inne, 
Gent" — who has given us in "The New English 
Canaan" what is probably the most curious and 
amusing book extant in regard to life in early New 
England. Morton was a very active thorn in the 
side of Governor Bradford and the other leading 
men at Plymouth. The earliest allusion I have 
found to him is in the second book of Bradford's 
"History" when, dealing with the events of the 
year 1628 — though writing at a later period — 
the leading chronicler of Massachusetts says : 

About some three or four years before this time, 
there came over one Captaine Wolastone (a man of 
pretie parts), and with him three or four more of some 
Eminencie, who brought with them a great many ser- 
vants, with provisions and other implements for to 
begine a plantation ; and pitched themselves in a place 
within the Massachusetts, which they called after their 
captain's name. Mount- Wollaston. Amongst whom 
was one Mr. Morton, who it should seeme, had some 
small adventure (of his owne or other mens) amongst 
them ; but had little respect amongst them, and was 
sleghted by the meanest servants. . . . But this 
Morton above said, haveing more craft than honestie, 
watches an opportunitie (commons being but hard 
amongst them), and got some strong drinck and other 
junckats & made him a feast. 

The place alluded to in this somewhat confusing 
paragraph is what is now known as Quincy; the 
men whom Morton feasted as a means of taking 



246 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

possession of the plantation were the servants 
whom Wollaston had left behind when he sailed 
off, after a discouraging year of New England 
pioneering, to try his fortune in Virginia ; and the 
deputy from whom Morton wrenched all vestiges 
of law-abiding authority in the plantation was 
Lieutenant Fitcher. Bradford's quaint version 
has it that these wicked conspirators "thrust 
Levetenante Fitcher out a dores." In any case 
when the lieutenant had decamped, the Lord of 
Misrule took possession of Merrymount, as Mount 
Wollaston was now renamed, to the utter scandal, 
of course, of the sober Pilgrims. 

Much has been written in abuse of Morton ; 
much, too, in his defense. John Adams, discussing 
him in 1802, put the matter thus : 

Such a rake as Morton, such an addle-headed fellow 
as he represents himself to be, could not be cordial with 
the first people from Leyden or with those who came 
over with the patent from London or the West of Eng- 
land. I can hardly conceive that his being a Church- 
man or reading his prayers from a Book of Common 
Prayer could be any great offence. His fun, his songs, 
and his revels were provoking enough, no doubt. But 
his Commerce with the Indians in arms and ammuni- 
tion and his instructions to those Savages in the use of 
them were serious and dangerous offences, which 
struck at the lives of the new-comers and threatened 
the utter extirpation of all the plantations. 

In order to understand this allusion of Adams 
to the Book of Common Prayer, it must be said 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 247 

here that there has been a tendency on the part of 
historians to attribute the strictures which have 
been made on Morton's character to the fact that 
he was — or pretended to be — an EpiscopaHan. 
The people who defend him are all Episcopalians ! 
The truth of the matter is, however, that Morton 
used his connection with the Church of England 
as a blind and almost certainly wrote his book 
"The New Canaan" as a piece of what we would 
call in these days "propaganda." On this account 
we must carefully discount whatever statements 
we find in the book criticizing the habits and cus- 
toms of the people at Plymouth. A tool of Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges (who was himself utterly 
dependent upon Archbishop Laud for advance- 
ment), it was Morton's cue to play up in his book 
the Primate's intense dislike of the Puritans and 
Separatists, and his inordinate zeal in behalf of all 
Church forms and ceremonies, including the use 
of the Book of Common Prayer. The whole 
political and historical significance of the "New 
Canaan" lies in this fact. One chapter in it, as 
we shall see, was especially written to bring trouble 
upon the Pilgrims by maintaining that they held 
it to be the "magistrate's office absolutely, and not 
the minister's, to join the people in lawful matri- 
mony" ; next, " that to make use of a ring in mar- 
riage is a relic of Popery " ; and then again, "the 
Book of Common Prayer is an idol; and all that 
use it idolaters." We shall see how cunningly, 
when it came to questions of State, Laud was 



248 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

worked on by these assertions, and what a puppet 
he became in the hands of Gorges and Morton. 

There is much more to "The New English 
Canaan'*, however, than a quarrel between Laud 
and the Separatists. It is an immensely enter- 
taining version of life in one little section of New 
England during this far-away period with which 
we are now dealing, — a version so entertaining 
that I, for one, am rather inclined to forgive 
Morton his personal sins out of gratitude for the 
manuscript in which those sins were recorded. 
Besides, he may well be held to have expiated his 
offenses when, his property having been destroyed, 
he was imprisoned through a bitter New England 
winter in the fireless dungeon of a Boston jail. 
Surely a sad experience this, for one who had been 
wont to describe himself as "of Clifford's Inne, 
gent." 

Morton was one of a class of men quite common 
in the days of Elizabeth and the Stuarts ; a vulgar 
Royalist and libertine, who, just because he was 
thrown by accident into the midst of a noncon- 
forming community, and was unable or unwilling 
to accept the situation and take himself off, has 
attained, as Charles Francis Adams, Junior, very 
well says, a prominence which will necessitate his 
mention in every history of America. None the 
less, he was a true nature lover, and he really fell 
deeply in love with New England, when she first 
bared her fresh spring beauty to him in June, 1622. 
The book in which he records his enthusiasm for 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 249 

the New World and his determination to make a 
fortune there was written before the close of 1635 
and was first printed in 1637. Until the Prince 
Society made its famous reprint which Mr. Adams 
has so ably edited, it was reprinted but once, — by 
Force, in the second volume of his American 
tracts. The Prince Society's edition reproduces 
the original title-page and tells us that the work 
was "composed in three bookes." It goes on to 
say that the first book sets forth the manners and 
customs and the "originall" of the natives (mean- 
ing their origin), together with their practical 
nature and their love for the English. The 
second book is what we should to-day call a de- 
scriptive pamphlet of the endowments and staple 
commodities of the country. The third book 
(written for Archbishop Laud's special delecta- 
tion) describes the people of the country, their 
prosperity, various incidents that had befallen 
them "together with their Tenents and practise 
of their Church." We are told that the work was 
"written by Thomas Morton of Clifford's Line 
gent., upon tenne yeares knowledge and experi- 
ment of the country"; and that it was printed 
at Amsterdam " by Jacob Frederick Stam. in the 
yeare 1637." 

Copies of "The New Canaan" are extremely 
rare. The Prince Society edition was made from 
a copy owned by John Quincy Adams, who pur- 
chased it while in Europe prior to the year 1801. 
It was this same copy, temporarily deposited in 



250 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

the Boston Athenseum in 1810, to which various 
students have alluded in their work. The quota- 
tions I shall give follow the Prince Society edition, 
except that no consistent effort has been made to 
adhere to the old-fashioned typography, which 
for the most part is too difficult for the ordinary 
printer to reproduce. 

In almost all the historical allusions to Morton 
and to Merrymount, the thing stressed is the May 
Day festivity of 1627, of which Bradford has 
written : "They allso set up a May -pole, drinking 
and dancing aboute it many days togeather, invit- 
ing the Indean women, for their comforts, dancing 
and frisking togither, like so many fairies, (or 
furies rather), and worse practises. As if they 
had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of the 
Roman Goddes Flora, or the beasly practises of 
the madd Bacchinalians. Morton likewise (to 
shew his poetrie), composed sundry rimes and 
verses, some tending to lasciviousnes, and others 
to the detraction and scandall of some persons, 
which he affixed to this idle or idoll May-polle." 

Morton's own account of this same occurrence 
will be given a few pages farther on. The point 
now to be made is that the Maypole celebration, 
while undoubtedly associated in the minds of 
Governor Bradford and his followers with the 
pagan days of the Saturnalia ^ and, therefore, to 
be condemned, was not in the last analysis the 

^ It was this festivity, as England celebrated it, that Stubbs rebuked so 
roundly in his "Aoatomy of Abuses." 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 251 

worst thing which Morton did. The really unfor- 
givable sin to be charged against him is that, to 
advance his own ends, he unscrupulously sold the 
natives not only strong drink but weapons. And 
he taught them to use those weapons effectively. 

Trade with the Indians in firearms had been 
strictly forbidden in 1622 by a proclamation of 
King James issued at the instance of the Council 
of New England. By putting arms into their 
hands and instructing them how to use them, 
Morton not only broke the law, but he also made 
life quite unsafe for everybody in the Colony. 

After the first skirmish with the Cape Cod 
savages in December, 1620, we find no mention of a 
gun being seen in an Indian's hands. As a matter 
of fact the Indians stood in mortal terror of fire- 
arms. Morton was to change all this. Bradford 
comments : 

This Morton having thus taught them the use of 
pieces, he sold them all he could spare ; and he and his 
consorts determined to send for many out of England, 
and had by some of the ships sent for above a score. 
The which being known, and his neighbors meeting the 
Indians in the woods armed with guns in this sort, there 
was a terror under them, who lived stragglingly and 
were of no strength in any place. And other places 
(though more remote) saw this mischief would quickly 
spread over all if not prevented. Besides, they saw 
they should keep no servants, for Morton would enter- 
tain any, how vile so ever, and all the scum of the 
country or any discontents would flock to him from all 
places if this next was not broken; and they would 



252 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

stand in more fear of their lives and goods (in short 
time) from this wicked and debauched crew than from 
the Savages themselves. 

Not only was Morton threatening the lives of 
the Pilgrims by putting arms in the hands of the 
natives ; he was also taking an unfair business 
advantage. If the savages could exchange their 
furs for guns, they would not exchange them for 
anything else, and Morton was utterly unscrupu- 
lous in this as in other matters. He had come to 
New England to get rich by means of the fur 
trade, and he meant to accomplish his end. To 
quote Bradford again : 

Hearing what gain the French and fishermen made 
by trading with pieces, powder and shot to the Indians, 
he as head of this consortship began the practice of the 
same in these parts. And first he taught them how to 
use them, to charge and discharge, and what proportion 
of powder to give the piece, according to the size and 
bigness of the same ; and what shot to use for fowl and 
what for deer. And having thus instructed them, he 
employed some of them to hunt and fowl for him, so as 
they became far more active in that employment than 
any of the English, by reason of their swiftness of foot 
and nimbleness of body ; being also quick-sighted, and 
by continual exercise, well knowing the haunts of all sorts 
of game. So when they saw the execution that a piece 
would do, and the benefit that might come by the same, 
they became mad, as it were, after them, and would not 
stick to give any price they could obtain to for them; 
accounting their bows and arrows but bawbles in com- 
parison of them. 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 253 

Such is Bradford's version of this matter; and 
Morton nowhere denies the story, though it is 
obvious that he would have denied it could he have 
done so. That he sold the savages spirits he does 
deny. These he said were the life of trade ; the 
Indians would "pawn their wits" for them; but 
spirits he would never let them have, according to 
his own account. For this "never" one must 
substitute a Gilbertian "hardly ever" in the inter- 
est of exactness, — just as Morton himself does 
in Chapter Nineteen of the first book of "The 
New English Canaan." "In al the Commerce 
that I had with them, I never profered them any 
such thing ; nay I would hardly let any of them 
have a drane unles hee were a Sachem or a Wan- 
naytuy, that is a rich man, or a man of estimation 
next in degree to a Sachem or Sagamore. I 
alwayes tould them it was amongst us the Sachems 
drinke. But they say if I come to the Northerne 
parts of the Country I shall have no trade, if I 
will not supply them with lusty liquors ; it is the 
life of the trade in all those parts." 

Here inadvertently Morton seems to have told 
the exact truth. Dodge in his "Wild Indians" 
declares that "this passion for intoxication 
amounts almost to an insanity ... to drink 
liquor as a beverage for the gratification of 
taste or for the sake of pleasurable conviviality 
is some thing of which the Indian can form no 
conception. His idea of pleasure in the use of 
strong drink is to get drunk, and the quicker 



254 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

and more complete that effect, the better he 
likes it." 

So between liquor and powder Morton was in a 
fair way to drive all competitors from the market. 
He himself says that in the course of five years one 
of his servants accumulated no less than a thou- 
sand pounds in the trade of beaver skins ; and 
this in 1635 meant a great deal of money, even 
allowing for the undoubted exaggeration of the 
statement. Small wonder that, as Morton ex- 
presses it, his plantation "beganne to come for- 
ward." In fact it came forward so fast that it 
always got the better in commercial enterprise of 
the Plymouth people. They were the first to find 
their way up to Maine, where in 1625 they began 
to trade with the savages. But Morton was not 
slow in following them and when, in 1628, they 
went out to establish a permanent station on the 
Kennebec, Morton had forestalled them by some 
time and so hindered them of a season's furs. 

Yet this Lord of Misrule's most abiding offense 
was against decency and good government, and it 
gradually became apparent to all dwelling along 
the coast on the borders of Maine and Cape Cod 
that Merry Mount was a nuisance which would 
have to be suppressed. If the Plymouth magis- 
trates refrained from this suppression, all order in 
New England would be at an end. 

So they mutually resolved to proceed, Bradford 
writes, and obtained of the Governor of Plymouth to 
send Captain Standish and some other aide with him 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH ^55 

to take Morton by force. Which accordingly was 
done ; but they found him to stand stiffly in his defense, 
having made fast his doors, armed his consorts, set 
diverse dishes of powder and bullets ready on the table ; 
and if they had not been over-armed with drink, more 
hurt might have been done. They summoned him to 
yield, but he kept his house, and they could get nothing 
but scoffs and scorns from him ; but at length, fearing 
they would do some violence to the house, he and some 
of his crew came out, but not to yield but to shoot. 
But they were so steeled with drink as their pieces were 
too heavy for them; himself, with a carbine (over- 
charged and almost half -filled with powder and shot as 
was after found) had thought to have shot Captain 
Standish ; but he stept to him and put by his piece and 
took him. Neither was there any hurt done to any of 
either side, save that one was so drunk that he ran his 
own nose upon the point of a sword that one held be- 
fore him as he entered the house; but he lost but a 
little of his hot blood. 

Morton's own account of this we shall read 
later. In essentials it is not different from Brad- 
ford's, except that Morton makes himself the hero 
of the tale and satirizes Standish under the name 
of Captain Shrimpe. 

Seeing that resistance to Standish was hopeless, 
Morton surrendered, was arrested, and was carried 
to Plymouth, where a council was held to decide 
upon the disposition that should be made of him. 
According to the prisoner's own account, certain 
of the magistrates were in favor of executing him 
at once and so making an end of the matter, but 



'^50 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

cooler judgment prevailed, and eventually the 
decision was that the prisoner should be sent back 
to England, which was done, on the vessel which 
sailed a month later from the Isles of Shoals. 
John Oldham, who had himself made not a little 
trouble for the Plymouth Colony, but who now 
had been reinstated, was given the charge of the 
prisoner and was commissioned also to deliver 
some letters describing Morton's offenses; but 
these letters made no impression in England, 
because Morton was clever enough to represent 
himself to Sir Ferdinando Gorges (who himself 
had a game to play in the New World) as a victim 
of religious persecution. 

Oldham's treachery and Morton's trickery gave 
Plymouth a great deal of trouble in England at 
this juncture. To the astonishment and horror 
of Bradford, the Lord of Misrule not only went 
scot free in England, but was allowed to return to 
America ! He even was brought back to Plymouth 
itself "as it were to nose them" — to quote Brad- 
ford's pregnant phrase — and was lodged by 
Isaac Allerton, then agent of the Plymouth Colony, 
in his own house as a clerk and scribe. When, 
after a few weeks' stay, Allerton returned to 
England, his scribe promptly made his way back 
to Mount Wollaston, there soon to be involved 
in fresh difficulties with Governor Endicott of the 
Salem Colony. His subsequent experiences fall 
outside the scope of our present interest and are 
chiefly of concern to students of Plymouth history 



EARLY BOOKS ABOUT PLYMOUTH 257 

for the reason that the punishment promptly 
inflicted on Morton by the Puritan magistrates 
was so much more severe than that meted out to 
him by the Pilgrims. 

The Bay authorities ordered that Thomas 
Morton, of Mount WoUaston, " shall presently be 
set into the bilboes, and after sent prisoner into 
England, by the ship called the Gift, now returning 
thither ; that all his goods shall be seized upon to 
defray the charge of his transportation, payment 
of his debts, and to give satisfaction to the Indians 
for a canoe he unjustly took away from them ; and 
that his house, after his goods are taken out, shall 
be burnt down to the ground in the sight of the 
Indians, for their satisfaction, for many wrongs he 
hath done them from time to time." The Puritans 
had almost a genius for making the punishment 
fit the crime. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOCIAL LIFE IN THE PILGRIM COLONY 

From all that we have read heretofore con- 
cerning the Pilgrims' life in Old New England, 
one would have said that they had no diversions, 
— nothing that we in these days would call social 
life. Yet a closer view establishes the certainty 
that there were sports ; occasionally indeed out- 
breaks of what even we should term real frivolity. 
Who would have thought, for instance, of the 
Pilgrims as masquerading, yet the enactment, in 
1645, of a law passed to punish masquerading 
proves that "some abuse hath formerly broken 
out amongst us by disguising, wearing visors and 
a strange apparel." Punishment was therefore 
enacted in the form of a fine of fifty shillings for 
"first default ; for the second a public whipping or 
binding to good behaviour at the discretion of the 
Court." 

Card playing it was found necessary (in 1655) 
to punish by a fine of fifty shillings, servants or 
children playing at cards, dice, or other unlaw- 
ful games, to be at the second offense publicly 
whipped. For the first offense correction by their 



SOCIAL LIFE 259 

parents or masters was deemed sufficient. By 
June, 1674, a law against horse-racing found its 
way to the Statute books, the punishment pro- 
vided being the stocks or a fine of five shilHngs. 
Smoking tobacco in "pubHc places" was pro- 
hibited in 1646; and in 1665 constables were 
ordered to return the names of those who should 
play or sleep or smoke tobacco about the meeting- 
house on the Lord's Day. That same year per- 
sons "who behaved themselves profanely by being 
without doors at the meetinghouse on the Lord's 
Day in times of exercise, and there misdemeaning 
themselves by jestings, sleepings, or the like, were 
to be admonished by the constables; if they 
persisted, they were to be set in stocks", and if 
still unreclaimed, their names were to be returned 
to the Courts. Special enactments then as now 
were necessary to keep the "Hcensed taverners" 
within proper bounds. In 1668 they were for- 
bidden "to allow profane singing, dancing, or 
revelling under penalty." 

One very interesting law which has a close rela- 
tion to the social life of the time was that of 1660, 
in which it was enacted "that any person of the 
years of discretion" (sixteen) "who shall wilfully 
make or publish any lie which may be injurious 
to the public weal, or done to the damage or hurt 
of any particular person, or with intent to deceive 
or confuse the people with any false news or re- 
ports" shall be fined ten shillings, "and in default 
of payment set in the stocks." If such a law 



260 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

existed to-day we might be edified by seeing many 
of the prosperous pubhshers of yellow newspapers 
displayed in the stocks in Union Square or Boston 
Common ! 

How rigorously the Pilgrims strove to impose 
the moral law we have seen in a previous chapter. 
Invariably they punished offenses of this nature 
with almost brutal severity. Dorothy Temple 
was publicly whipped until she fainted under the 
lash, and men who had done violence to the 
honor of women were more than once publicly 
whipped, even when they had married the women 
concerned. The wife, meanwhile, sat near by in 
the stocks. Little family altercations were dealt 
with in similarly drastic fashion. It was provided 
that no man should strike his wife and no woman 
should beat her husband under the penalty of a 
fine of ten pounds. The iron hand of the Pilgrim 
Fathers even intervened in so delicate a matter 
as courtship. A law was passed in 1638 that no 
man should propose to a girl unless he had pre- 
viously secured the consent of her parents, or of 
her master in case she was a bond servant. And 
there was very evident desire to prevent ambitious 
young men from changing their social status by 
marriage. 

To be sure the young gentleman sometimes 
persisted and won out against a hard-hearted 
father. A case of this kind, which has come down 
to us, is that of Arthur Rowland, Junior, who 
finding the daughter of Governor Prence not averse 



SOCIAL LIFE 261 

to his attentions, apparently asked her to marry 
him, — instead of asking her father if he might 
ask her. We therefore read in the Records of 
October, 1666, that : 

Arthur Howland, Jun'r, for inveigling of Mistris 
Elizabeth Prence and makeing motion of marriage to 
her and prosecuting the same contrary to her parrents 
likeing, and without their consent, and directly con- 
trary to theire mind and will, was centanced to pay a 
fine of five pounds and to find surties for his good 
behavior, and in speciall that hee desist from the vse 
of any meanes to obtaine or retaine her affections as 
aforsaid. 

The condition, that whereas the said Arthur How- 
land hath disorderly and unrighteously indeavored to 
obtaine the affections of Mistris Elizabeth Prence, 
against the mind and will of her parents, if, therefore, 
the said Arthur Howland shall for the future refraine 
and desist from the vse of any meanes to obtaine or 
retaine her affections as aforesaid, and appeer att the 
Court of his matie to be holden att Plymouth the 
first Tuesday in July next, and in the mean time be of 
good behaviour towards our sov lord the King and all 
his leich people, and not depart the said Court without 
lycence ; that then, &c. 

Later on we find a record that 

Arthur Howland, Junr, did solemnly and seriously 
engage before this Court that he will wholly desist 
and never apply himselfe for the future, as formerly 
hee hath done, to Mistris Elizabeth Prence in reference 
unto marriage. 



262 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

None the less, since Arthur Rowland subsequently 
married this girl of his choice it would appear that 
the stern parent ultimately relented, and the 
Court winked at the youth's effrontery. Arthur 
must have been a brave young man, too, so to 
defy his father-in-law elect, for contemporary 
writers describe Governor Prence as possessed of 
*'a countenance full of majesty." 

The Pilgrims not only sought to guide people 
in their choice of mates ; they attempted the far 
more difficult task of making people who were 
married love each other. So we read : 

In reference unto divers complaints made concern- 
ing John Williams, Jun'r, his disorderly liveing with 
his wife, and his abusive and harsh carriages towards 
her both in words and actions, . . . the Court saw 
cause to require bonds for the appeerance of the said 
WilHams att this psent Court, and likewise sent for 
his wife to this Court, and after the hearing of severall 
things to and frow betwixt them, the said Williams 
being not able to make out his charge against her, 
they were both admonished to apply themselves to such 
waies as might make for the recovering of peace and love 
betwixt them ; and for that end the Court requested Isacke 
Bucke to bee officious therin. 

One wonders how Isacke succeeded in his diffi- 
cult task, — and how he set about it. 

Nothing is more clear from the Plymouth 
records than that the paucity of amusements 
threw men and women back on their emotions in 
a most unwholesome way. The sexual crimes and 



SOCIAL LIFE 263 

family troubles therein set down seem to be out 
of all proportion to the population. One quite 
sympathizes on this account with the strenuous 
efforts made by the Inhabitants and the Un- 
privileged of the Colony, especially the servants, 
to introduce such amusements as they had been 
accustomed to in England. Sometimes they suc- 
ceeded in this ambition. Out-of-door games like 
bowls and pitch bar seemed to have been com- 
monly played, and at the inns a certain amount 
of regulated drinking was undoubtedly permitted. 
To be sure, people must drink for "refreshing" 
and not to beastiality. And the conditions under 
which an innkeeper could dispense his wares were 
strictly regulated. When strangers first arrived 
he might sell them strong water to the extent of 
twopence worth ; apparently this was regarded 
as a proper amount for "refreshing" only. More- 
over, the uplifting influence of woman had its 
place in the scheme of innkeeping, as the Plym- 
outh authorities saw it. When James Leonard 
of Taunton lost his wife by death he was straight- 
way deprived of his license on the ground that he 
was now unfitted to keep an inn. 

So though the upper ranks of society had noth- 
ing more exciting in the way of amusement than 
evenings in their own homes, devoted to talk 
more or less religious in character, the common 
folks enjoyed themselves after a fashion in spite 
of repressive laws. 

The things the Pilgrims wore as they pursued 



264 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

their daily lives and went to church on Sunday 
might be very interesting to discuss if we knew 
a little more about it. But we have absolutely 
no made-in-New England pictures of the men who 
founded this Colony, and so have few means of 
knowing in what manner they clothed themselves. 
The only authentic portrait of a Pilgrim Father 
which has come down to us is that of Edward 
Winslow ; and this was painted in London in 
1651 when he was in middle life, and had been 
away from Plymouth for five years.^ 

Probably the men among the Pilgrims wore 
simple smocks and trousers made of coarse, strong 
cloth, the women clothing themselves in plainly 
cut gowns of ample proportions. One would have 
expected both men and women to avoid bright 
colors, yet from the wills it is clear that the men 
occasionally had coats that were neither black 
nor gray, and that the women were happily pos- 
sessed of petticoats of alluring hues, of lace scarfs, 
of silk garters, and of various other things which 
we might regard as articles of luxury. 

The Dignitaries of the church wore black gowns 
on Sunday, following the habit of the leaders in 
the Calvinist churches abroad ; but Elder Brew- 
ster's wardrobe rejoiced in a violet-colored cloth 
coat, a pair of black silk stockings, a doublet, and 
other garments of the kind that a fairly well-to-do 

1 Winslow was sent to England in 1646 on a mission for the Massachu- 
setts Bay Colony, and he was still in the mother country serving on a com- 
mission with Admiral Venable and Admiral Penn, father of the noted Quaker, 
when in May, 1655, he died of fever. 




Copyright, A. S. Burbank. Plymouth, 3Iass. 
ELIZABETH PADDY WENSLEY 

Born in Plynii>utli in l(i41. the daughter of William Paddy, she married John Wensley, 
also of Plymouth. This portrait i- in Piljrrim Hall. 




MADAME PADISHAI, AND CHILD 

This fine presentati()ii of the dress of a gentlewoman and infant eliild in (lie middle of the 
17th century hung for many years in old Plymouth homes. It is now owne<l by Mrs. 
Greely Stevenson Curtis of Boston to whom it came by inlierit:in<c. The arlist is unknown. 



SOCIAL LIFE 265 

Englishman might have worn in the mother 
country at this time. Even where people were 
obviously only poor folk, if one may judge from 
the valuation put on their estate, they had 
cherished articles of personal property to bestow 
on their friends and relatives. One poor man 
died in 1633 possessed of a *'satten sute", two 
ruffs of embroidered silk garter, and a "cap with 
silver lace on it." ^ Another whose estate boasted 
only three quarters of a cow, left behind him (in 
1633) a feather bed bolster, blankets, a green rug, 
sheets, table cloths, napkins, "pillow beeres ", 
cushions, a chair bed, and sundry pots and kettles 
to the value of £71. ^ 

When Mary Ring died in 1633 she left a will 
which shows that quite an elaborate outfit of 
"handkerchers buttoned and unbuttoned ", beaver 
fur of considerable value, numerous blankets and 
bolsters and several pieces of brass and pewter 
had been hers. This will is interesting enough to 
give in its entirety for the flood of light that it 
throws on the life of the time. 

WYNSLOW GOVr, 

New Plymouth 
1633. 

A Coppy of the will & Test of Mary Ring 
widow who dyed the 15th or 19th of July 
1631. the will being proved in publick Court 
the 28th of Oct. in the ninth yeare of the 
raigne of our Sov. Lord Charles & c. 

1 Mayflower Descendant, 1, 83. ^ Ibid. 1, 157. 



266 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

I Mary Ring being sick in body but in prfect memory 
thanks be to God, doe make this my last will & Test, 
in manner & forme as followeth. ffirst I bequeath my 
sowl to God that gave it me & my body to the earth 
from whence it was taken. Next my will is that such 
goods as God hath given I give also. I give unto 
Andrew my sonne all my brasse and pewter. I give 
unto my son Andrew my new bed and bolster wth the 
ffether [worn] to put in it wch I have ready Item I 
give to my son andrew two white blankets, one red 
blanket wth the best Coverlet wch lieth upon my bed 
& the curtaines It. I give unto my sonne Andrew 
three pre of my best sheets & two paire of my best 
pillow beeres. It. I give also to him one dyapr table- 
cloath & one dyapr towell and halfe a dozen of nap- 
kins. It. I give unto him all my wollen cloath un- 
made except one peece of red wch my will is that my 
daughter Susan shall have as much as will make a 
bearing Cloath and the remainder I give unto Stephen 
Deanes childe It. I give unto my sonne Andrew 
my bolster next the best. It. I give unto him my 
trunke & my box & my Cubbert. It. I give unto 
him all my cattle. It. I give unto him halfe the 
Come wch groweth in the yard where I dwell. And the 
othr halfe I give unto Stephen Deane my [illegible] 
to make him a Cloake. Timber yt I lent to mr 
Wynslow that Cost me a pownd of Beaver, besise a 
peece more that they had of me. I give to my son 
Andrew all my shares of land that is due to me or shall 
be. I give to my sonne Andrew all my tooles. It. 
The money that is due to me from the Governour forty 
shillings of Comodities I am to have out of England 
[worn] I give unto him also except the green Say wch 



SOCIAL LIFE 267 

I give unto Stephen Deanes childe to make her a Coat. 
It. one peece of new linen I give unto my sonne 
Andrew. It. I give unto my daughter Susan Clarke 
my bed I lay upon wth my gray Coverlet and the teeks 
of the two pillows : but the ffethers I give unto my 
Sonne Andrew. It. One Ruffe I had of Goodman 
Giles I give to my daughter Eliza Deane. All the rest 
of my things not menconed I give unto my daughters 
to be equally devided between them. I give unto my son 
Andrew all my bookes my two pr of potthooks & my 
trammell, one cowrse sheet to put his bed in, & all the 
money that is due to me from Goodman Gyles. And 
my will is that he shall have the peece of black stuff. 
The goods I give my two daughters are all my wearing 
cloathes, all my wearing linnen. It. I give unto mrs 
Warren one woodden cupp wth a foote as a tojen of 
my love. It. my will is that the Cattle I give my 
sonne be kept to halfes for him by Stephen Deane, or 
at the discretion of my Overseers to take order for 
them for the good of the childe. It. I give to Andrew 
my sonne all my handkerchers buttoned or unbuttoned. 
It. I give to Andrew one silver whissell It. my 
will is that Andrew my son be left wth my son Stephen 
Deane ; And doe require of my son Deane to help 
him forward in the knowledge & feare of God, not to 
oppresse him by any burthens to tender him as he will 
answere to God. My Overseers of my will I institute 
& make my loving ffrriends Samuell ffuller & Thomas 
Blossom, whom I entreate to see this my will pformed 
according to the true intent of the same. And my will 
is that my son Andrew have recourse unto these two 
my loving friends for councell & advice & to be ruled 
by them in anything they shall see good & convenient 



268 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

for him. Also my will & desire is that my Overseers 
see that those goods wch I have given unto my sonne 
Andrew be carefully preserved for him, until such time 
as they shall judge it meet to put them into his own 
hands. My will also is that if my Overseers shall see 
it meet to dispose of my sonne Andrew otherwise then 
wth his Brother Deane That then my Sonne Deane 
shall be willing to consent unto it, & they to dispose 
of him, provided it be alwaies wth the good will of my 
sonne Andrew. I give unto Andrew a linnen Capp 
wch was his ffathers, buttons for his handkercher un- 
buttoned I leave for him. My will is that Andrew my 
sonne shall pay all my debts & chargs about my 
buriall. In witnes whereof I set my hand before witnes 

Witnesses Mary Ring 

Samuell ffuller 
Thomas Blossom ; 

The inventory made after Mrs. Ring's death 
contains a reference, also, to "one mingled coloured 
petticoate", whatever so seemingly worldly a gar- 
ment as that might be. But as if to take the 
curse off this proof of frivolity, she died possessed 
of the following highly orthodox books : 

One Bible, 

" dod, 

** plea for Infants, 

" ruine of Rome, 

" Troubler of the Church of Amsterdam, 

*' Garland of vertuous dames 

** psalme booke 



SOCIAL LIFE 269 

Though the houses in which the Pilgrims lived — 
and died on "ffether" beds — were very simple 
and substantial, they were by no means uncom- 
fortable for their time; and they were not 
cramped. At first they were constructed of hewn 
plank, but after 1628 plank roofs replaced roofs of 
thatch. The house of Miles Standish's son, which 
is still standing in Duxbury in a good state of 
preservation, would make a comfortable home even 
to-day. And the John Bradford house in Kings- 
ton, also well preserved at the present time, proves 
clearly that by the second or third generation at 
any rate the Plymouth folk were occasionally 
building on a generous not to say luxurious scale. 
Both these places show, too, that the Pilgrims 
knew how to choose a site for a home. At first 
the chimneys were of sticks, plastered with clay, 
but these, proving inflammable, were forbidden. 
Later chimneys were probably of rough stone laid 
in clay, as the majority of New England chimneys 
remain to the present time. 

Notwithstanding the impressive number of 
heavy pieces of cabinetwork believed to have 
come over in the Mayflower, it is probable that 
most of the early furniture was made by car- 
penters in Plymouth. Table implements were 
chiefly of pewter; though that there were some 
silver bowls and occasional silver spoons the 
Plymouth wills show beyond a doubt. Forks 
the seventeenth century managed quite well with- 
out. 



270 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

The things served in their pewter dishes and 
wooden bowls did not make the Pilgrims altogether 
happy : corn bread instead of wheat bread ; fish 
instead of beef, mutton, and veal. In 1630 milk, 
butter, and cheese could be had ; and such garden 
staples as beans and pumpkins, squash, turnips, 
parsnips, peas, and onions were available in abun- 
dance. But the things we now associate chiefly 
with Cape Cod — oysters, clams, lobsters, and 
cranberries — the Pilgrims either distinctly dis- 
liked or did not know at all. (With cranberries 
they had nothing to do in the early days.) To 
tea, coffee, and cocoa we find no allusions in Plym- 
outh while it remained a separate colony; and 
pie, which to most people is now synonymous with 
New England, was unknown as a dessert in the 
seventeenth century. (Nor was it served for 
breakfast.) 

Hasty pudding, on the other hand — made of 
corn meal boiled in water or milk — was the almost 
universal breakfast dish, and there is reason to 
believe that beans baked with pork and succotash 
early became popular with the Pilgrim Fathers. 
So though most of us who visit Plymouth to-day 
resort piously to the restaurant near Pilgrim Hall 
and — while a King Charles spaniel sports appro- 
priately around our heels — partake of lobsters, 
clams, and several varieties of fish, out of deference, 
as we think, to the early Fathers, those bent on 
doing the really proper thing ought instead to 
eat a huge dish of succotash made more or less 



SOCIAL LIFE 271 

as follows :i ''Boil two fowls in a large kettle 
of water. At the same time boil in another 
kettle an half pound of lean pork and two quarts 
of common white beans, until like soup. When 
the fowls are boiled, skim off the fat and add a 
small piece of corned beef, one half of a turnip 
sliced and cut small, and five or six potatoes 
sliced thin. When cooked tender, take out the 
fowls and keep them in the oven with the pork. 
The soup of beans and pork should be added to 
the water the fowls were cooked in. Add salt 
and pepper. Four quart of hulled corn having 
been boiled soft are added to the soup. Before 
serving, add the meat of one fowl. The second 
fowl should be served separately, as also the 
corned beef and pork." 

The simple meals of the Pilgrims, with succotash 
frequently figuring as piece de resistance, were 
served at an oaken table which usually shared 
with a large chest the honors of the living room. 
At the big fireplace in this room most of the cook- 
ing was done. The old inventories and the con- 
temporary manuscripts establish the presence, 
even in the early days, of fairly complete outfits 
of cooking utensils in each home : iron spits for 
roasting meat, iron kettles for boiling vegetables 
and Dutch ovens for baking bread. A goodly 
array of wooden platters (trenchers), of pewter 
utensils, of trays, bowls and bottles (though glass 

» Albert Mathews : Massachusetts Historical Society's Proceedings, Vol 
III, p. 389. 



272 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

in any form was not common) are also displayed 
in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, adorned with pre- 
sumably authentic labels. 

In the way of household furniture there were 
broad-bottomed, roomy armchairs — very straight 
as to back — for the grown-ups, wooden benches 
or settles for the young folks and servants, and 
crickets for the children. The Pilgrims slept in 
high-posted bedsteads and the babies in odd little 
cradles. For a time oiled paper at the windows 
let the light in by day and for many years pitch- 
pine knots supplied the only light after darkness 
fell. Talking more than reading must have occu- 
pied the Pilgrims in the evening. 

Yet they had books. Brewster left no fewer 
than four hundred separate books when he died, 
and from the published list of them, we find that, 
though they were preponderantly theological in 
character, as might have been expected, they 
contained as well twenty-four books of history, 
six of philosophy, and fourteen poetical in their 
nature. Moreover, no less than sixty-two volumes 
in this old New England library were in Latin ! 

Governor Bradford's inventory shows that he 
possessed at the time of his death twelve chairs, 
three carpets, part of an armor, seventeen sheets, 
seventy -nine napkins, ninety-odd pounds of pewter, 
seven porringers, four dozen trenchers, a cloth 
cloak, clothing including two suits with silver 
buttons, thirteen silver spoons, two silver beer 
bowls, two silver wine cups, and a case of six 




EM)KK liKKWSl'KRS CHAIR AM) THK ( KADLK OK PKRKCHIXE WHITE, 
THE FIRST PILGRIM BABY 

Tlicse relics iif curly New Englanii liousekecpint; ore iiiiw in Pilfjriiii H;ill. PlyiiKiiitli. 




THE CHAIR OF PLYMOUTH'S FIRST GOVERNOR, AND AN ANCIENT 
SPINNING WHEEL 

From the origin;iIs in Pilgrim H;ill, Plymnulli. 



SOCIAL LIFE 273 

knives. To be sure, these are only a few of his 
possessions, and they have been named for the 
Hght they throw on the personal life of the Gov- 
ernor and on the habits and customs of the Plym- 
outh Colony. The value of the entire inventory 
was one thousand and five pounds and two shillings. 
But no buckles, carriage, looking-glass, forks, or 
china were found among the articles possessed by 
William Bradford when he passed away in May, 
1657. Nor did he own a watch, it would appear. 

The funeral charges or listed debts of lonely old 
women in the colony are often quite pathetic in 
their simplicity. When Grandmother Hurst ^ died, 
for instance, the charges against her estate were as 
follows : 

1. s. d. 
To ye finding of her Corne for six yere at 

20tie shilling p ye yeare is 6-00-00 

To six Hoggs in five yeares at 20 shillings pr 

Hogg is, 5-00-00 

To ye wintering of a cow 5 yeare at 16 s p ye 

yeare 4-00-00 

To ye finding of her wood 5 yeare at 30tie 

shilling p yeare is 7-10-00 

To 5 yeares washing. Dressing off Dyet & 

other trouble : at 20tie shillings p ye 

yeare is 5-00-00 

Other small things I doe not recon June 26, 

-1688 
June 1670 since 1665 Disbursed cloth for 

two shifts 00-14-00 

1 Poole : "Book of Old Plymouth Wills." 



274 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

3 pair of shoues 00-10-00 

Wintering one cow two yeare 01-10-00 

Wintering one calf one yeare 00-10-00 

Cloth for one peticoat 00-09-00 

1 yeare & ^ diet and tendance 08-00-00 

Some total is ye some off : 39-03-00 

How eloquently this list pictures the lonely last 
days of an ancient dame of Plymouth, cared for 
by kind, but by no means overindulgent hands, 
as the flame of her life expired on the bleak New 
England coast. 

No aspect of social life is more important than 
schools, and nothing in the history of Plymouth 
is more extraordinary at first sight than the com- 
paratively small part played in the life of the 
colony by schools and school-teachers. It will 
be remembered that one of the reasons why the 
Pilgrims left Holland was because they wished 
their young people to be properly brought up ; 
and in Holland education was universal. Guic- 
ciardini notes that every one there had "some 
smattering of their Gramer"; and that even the 
husbandmen could read and write. At first 
teachers in Holland were paid by the people, 
but by 1609 the schools were the common prop- 
erty of the people, paid for out of the municipal 
rates. ^ 

The Protestants of the Netherlands saw very 
clearly the immense importance of education to 
their cause, based as it was upon a study of the 

1 Motley : "United Netherlands." Vol. IV, 567. 



SOCIAL LIFE 275 

Scriptures, the general education of the people, 
and the wide diffusion of printed books, especially 
of the Bible. We cannot for a minute suppose 
that Bradford was not keenly aware of the impor- 
tance of carrying on at Plymouth the traditions 
of Holland in respect to education. But his 
*' History" makes no mention of this matter until 
the year 1624, when he replies to a criticism to the 
effect that the children of the Pilgrims were 
neither taught to read nor to recite the catechism. 
This he declares to be not true. On the contrary 
he asserts that "divers take pains with their own 
as they can ; indeed we have no common school 
for want of a fit person or hitherto means to main- 
tain one ; though we desire now to begin." 

It must, however, be borne in mind that at first 
there were not many children to be trained. Of 
the twelve children who came to Plymouth on 
the Mayflower only seven survived the terrible 
epidemic of colds which came as a result of the 
exposure during those first few weeks when there 
was no proper shelter available for the colonists, 
and the men waded about in the icy water of 
Provincetown Bay, regardless of consequences. 
How many children were included in the families 
which came over in subsequent early ships does 
not appear. There must of course have been 
some, but there were not many. And during the 
first few years of the colony's life, the increase of 
children from births was not very rapid. None 
the less a school might have been got together 



276 THE DAYS OF THE PH^GRIM FATHERS 

had there been a teacher available or money on 
hand to meet the expense. As it was, the chil- 
dren were undoubtedly taught at home as they 
had been in England. And that somebody was 
doing very satisfactory teaching is clear from the 
fact that a daughter of John Rowland and Eliza- 
beth Tilley, who was one of the first generation of 
children born to the Pilgrims on these shores, 
"signed her name in her old age as administratrix 
of her husband's estate in an almost clerkly hand." 

That there was a school by 1635 we have con- 
vincing proof in that a boy by the name of Eaton 
was then apprenticed to Bridget Fuller under 
terms which required her "to keep him at school 
two years." The allusion here might be to family 
training of a regular kind, but the presumption 
is that there was a school, since in the first class 
graduated from Harvard in 1642 Plymouth had 
a representative, and in the class of 1650 was 
another graduate from the old colony. These 
young men must have been fitted for college 
somewhere. 

A fact not to be dodged, however, is that it was 
forty years after the landing at Plymouth before 
positive enactments on the subject of education 
began to appear on the statute books. In 1663 
vigorous steps seem to have been taken. Not 
only Plymouth, but other towns which had grown 
out of the original settlement, like Duxbury and 
Marshfield, were now required by the Court, the 
lawmaking body, to take into serious considera- 



SOCIAL LIFE 277 

tion the matter of securing schoolmasters "to 
train up children to read and write." Four or 
five years later, one John Morton, nephew of the 
Nathaniel Morton who was so long Secretary of 
the colony, came forward and "offered to teach 
children and youth of the town to read and write 
and cast accounts on reasonable consideration." 
This offer was not accepted at once; but in 1671 
Morton's proposition was acted upon, and the 
school was started. One year previously appro- 
priation had been made to meet the expenses of 
such a school ; the Court made a grant of all the 
profit annually accruing to the colony "for fishing 
with nets or seines at Cape Cod, for mackerel, 
bass or herrings, to be made for and toward a 
free school in some town in this jurisdiction, pro- 
vided a beginning was made within one year of 
the grant." This school was classical as well as 
elementary. It is claimed for it that it was "the 
first free school ordained by law in New England." 
But this honor belongs to the Bay colony, not to 
Plymouth. And though Nathaniel Morton was a 
historian and his nephew a schoolmaster, his four 
married daughters could not write. Nor could 
the wife of Governor Bradford. The education 
of women was not regarded with universal favor 
in early Plymouth. A project to establish a 
school for girls was opposed as late as 1793 on the 
ground that it might teach wives how to correct 
their husbands' errors in spelling ! 

Yet there is no call to pity the PilgTims too 



278 THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

much for their scanty educational opportunities 
and their barren social life. Nor need we regard 
them as too distinctly martyrs to an impossible 
ideal. They enjoyed at Plymouth a greater degree 
of economic freedom than they could have attained 
in Scrooby or Austerfield at this time, and they 
were able to bring up their children in comfort 
and to worship God in the way that seemed to 
them good. The lesson of their lives is, therefore, 
an altogether inspiring one : that to those who 
have vision and the faith steadfastly to follow 
the Gleam a sufficiency of this world's goods and 
conditions under which they may enjoy the same 
are usually attainable. 



APPENDIX 

BRADFORD'S "WHO'S WHO" OF THE MAYFLOWER 
PASSENGER LIST 

The names of those which came over first, in 
ye year 1620. and were by the blessing of God the 
first beginers and (in a sort) the foundation of 
all the Plantations and Colonies in New-England ; 
and their families. 

8. Mr. John Carver ; Kathrine, his wife ; Desire 

Minter ; & 2 man-servants, John Howland, Roger 
Wilder ; William Latham, a boy ; & a maid servant, 
& a child yt was put to him, called Jasper More. 

6. Mr. William Brewster ; Mary, his wife ; with 

2. sons, whose names were Love & Wrasling ; and 
a boy was put to him called Richard More; and 
another of his brothers. The rest of his children 
were left behind, & came over afterwards. 

5. Mr. Edward Winslow; Elizabeth, his wife; & 

2. men servants, caled Georg Sowle and Elias 
Story; also a little girle was put to him, caled 
Ellen, the sister of Richard More, 

2. William Bradford, and Dorothy, his wife; 

having but one child, a sone, left behind, who 
came afterward. 

6. Mr. Isaack Allerton, and Mary, his wife ; with 

3. children, Bartholomew, Remember, & Mary; 
and a servant boy, John Hooke. 



280 APPENDIX 

2. Mr. Samuell Fuller, and a servant, caled William 

Butten. His wife was behind, & a child, which 
came afterwards. 

2. John Crakston, and his sone, John Crackston. 

2. Captin Myles Standish, and Rose, his wife. 

4. Mr. Christopher Martin, and his wife, and 2. 
servants, Salamon Prower and John Langemore. 

5. Mr. William Mullines, and his wife, and 2. 
children, Joseph & Priscila; and a servant, 
Robart Carter. 

6. Mr. William White, and Susana, his wife, and 
one sone, caled Resolved, and one borne a ship- 
bord, caled Peregriene; & 2. servants, named 
William Holbeck & Edward Thomson. 

8. Mr. Steven Hopkins, & Elizabeth, his wife, and 

2. children, caled Giles, and Constanta, a doughter, 
both by a former wife ; and 2. more by this wife, 
caled Damaris & Oceanus ; the last was borne at 
sea; and 2. servants, called Edward Doty and 
Edward Litster. 

1. Mr. Richard Warren ; but his wife and children 
were lefte behind, and came afterwards. 

4. John Billinton, and Elen, his wife ; and 2. sones, 

John & Francis. 

4. Edward Tillie, and Ann, his wife; and 2. chil- 
dren that were their cossens, Henery Samson and 
Humility Coper. 

3. John Tillie, and his wife ; and Eelizabeth, thier 
doughter. 

2. Francis Cooke, and his sone John. But his 
wife & other children came afterwards. 

2. Thomas Rogers, and Joseph, his sone. His 
other children came afterwards. 



APPENDIX 281 

3.^ Thomas Tinker, and his wife, and a sone. 

2. John Rigdale, and Alice, his wife. 

3. James Chilton, and his wife, and Mary, their 
doughter. They had an other doughter, yt was 
maried, came afterward. 

3. Edward Fuller, and his wife, and Samuell, their 

Sonne. 

3. John Turner, and 2. sones. He had a doughter 

came some years after to Salem, wher she is now 
living. 

3. Francis Eaton, and Sarah, his wife, and Samuell, 

their sone, a yong child. 

10. Moyses Fletcher, John Goodman, Thomas Wil- 
liams, Digerie Preist, Edmond Margeson, Peter 
Browne, Richard Britterige, Richard Clarke, 
Richard Gardenar, Gilbart Winslow. 

1. John Alden was hired for a cooper, at South- 
Hampton, wher the ship victuled; and being a 
hopfull yong man, was much desired, but left to 
his owne liking to go or stay when he came here ; 
but he stayed, and maryed here. 

2. John Allerton and Thomas Enlish were both 
hired, the later to goe mr of a shalop here, and 
ye other was reputed as one of ye company, but 
was to go back (being a seaman) for the help of 
others behind. But they both dyed here, before 
the shipe returned. 

2. There were allso other 2. seamen hired to stay 

a year here in the country, William Trevore, and 
one Ely. But when their time was out, they both 
returned. 

These, being aboute a hundred sowls, came 

1 Written 2 in MS. 



282 APPENDIX 

over in this first ship ; and began this worke, 
which God of his goodnes hath hitherto blessed; 
let his holy name have ye praise. 



And seeing it hath pleased him to give me to see 
30. years compleated since these beginnings ; and 
that the great works of his providence are to be 
observed, I have thought it not unworthy my 
paines to take a veiw of the decreasings & in- 
creasings of these persons, and such changs as 
hath passed over them & theirs, in this thirty 
years. It may be of some use to such as come 
after ; but, however, I shall rest in my owne 
benefite. I will therefore take them in order as 
they lye. 

Mr. Carver and his wife dyed the first year; 
he in ye spring, she in ye somer; also, his man 
Roger and ye little boy Jasper dyed before either 
of them, of ye commone infection. Desire Minter 
returned to her freinds, & proved not very well, 
and dyed in England. His servant boy Latham, 
after more than 20. years stay in the country, 
went into England, and from thence to the Ba- 
hamy Hands in ye West Indies, and ther, with 
some others, was starved for want of food. His 
maid servant maried, & dyed a year or tow after, 
here in this place. 

His servant, John Howland, maried the dough ter 
of John Tillie, Elizabeth, and they are both now 
living, and have 10. children, now all living; and 
their eldest daughter hath 4. children. And 
15. ther 2. daughter, 1. all living; and other of their 
children mariagable. So 15. are come of them. 



APPENDIX 283 

4. Mr. Brewster lived to very old age; about 80 

years he was when he dyed, having lived some 23. 
or 24. years here in ye countrie; & though his 
wife dyed long before, yet she dyed aged. His 
sone Wrastle dyed a yonge man unmarried; his 
sone Love lived till this year 1650. and dyed and 
left 4. children, now Hving. His doughters which 
came over after him are dead, but have left sundry 
children alive; his eldest sone is still liveing, and 
hath 9. or 10. children; one maried, who hath a 

2. child or 2. 

Richard More his brother dyed the first winter ; 

4. but he is maried, and hath 4. or 5. children, all 
living. 

Mr. Ed. Winslow his wife dyed the first winter ; 
and he maried with the widow of Mr. White, 

2. and hath 2. children living by her marigable, 
besides sundry that are dead. 

One of his servants dyed, as also the little girle, 
soone after the ships arivall. But his man, Georg 

8. Sowle, is still living, and hath 8 children. 

William Bradford his wife dyed soone after 
their arivall ; and he married againe ; and hath 

4. 4. children, 3. whereof are married. 

8. Mr. Allerton his wife dyed with the first, and 

his servant, John Hooke. His sone Bartle is 
maried in England, but I know not how many 
children he hath. His doughter Remember is 
maried at Salem, & hath 3. or 4. children living. 
And his doughter Mary is maried here, & hath 
4. children. Him selfe maried againe with ye 
doughter of Mr. Brewster, & hath one sone living 
by her, but she is long since dead. And he is 



284 APPENDIX 

maried againe, and hath left this place long agoe. 
So I account his increase to be 8. besides his sons 
in England. 
2. Mr. Fuller his servant dyed at sea; and after 

his wife came over, he had tow children by her, 
which are living and growne up to years ; but he 
dyed some 15 years agoe. 

John Crackstone dyed in the first mortality ; 
and about some 5. or 6. years after, his sone 
dyed; having lost him selfe in ye wodes, his feet 
became frosen, which put him into a feavor, of 
which he dyed. 

4. Captain Standish ^ his wife dyed in the first 
sickness, and he maried againe, and hath 4. sones 
liveing, and some are dead. 

Mr. Martin, he & all his, dyed in the first in- 
fection not long after the arivall. 

Mr. Molines, and his wife, his sone, and his 

servant, dyed the first winter. Only his doughter 

15. Priscila survied, and maried with John Alden, who 

are both living, and have 11. children. And their 

eldest daughter is maried, & hath five children. 

Mr. White and his 2. servants dyed soone after 

7. ther landing. His wife maried with Mr. Winslow 

(as is before noted). His 2. sons are maried, and 

Resolved hath 5. children, Peregrine tow, all 

living. So their increase are 7. 

Mr. Hopkins and his wife are now both dead, 
but they lived above 20. years in this place, and 

5. had one sone and 4. doughters borne here. Ther 
sone became a seaman, & dyed at Barbadoes : 
one daughter dyed here, and 2. are maried ; one 

1 Who dyed 3. of Octob. 1655. 



APPENDIX 285 

of them hath 2. children; & one is yet to mary. 
So their increase which still survive are 5, But 

4. his sone Giles is maried, and hath 4. children. 

12. His daughter Constanta is also maried, and hath 
12. children, all of them living, and one of them 
maried. 

4. Mr. Richard Warren lived some 4. or 5. years, 

and had his wife come over to him, by whom he 
had 2. sons before dyed; and one of them is 
maryed, and hath 2. children. So his increase is 
4. But he had 5. doughters more came over with 
his wife, who are all maried, & living, & have 
many children. 

8. Jolin Billinton, after he had bene here 10. yers, 

was executed for killing a man; and his eldest 
sone dyed before him; but his 2. sone is alive, 
and maried, & hath 8. children. 

7. Edward Tillie and his wife both dyed soon 
after their arivall ; and the girle Humility, their 
cousen, was sent for into England, and dyed ther. 
But the youth Henery Samson is still liveing, and 
is maried, & hath 7. children. 

John Tillie and his wife both dyed a litle after 
they came ashore; and their daughter Elizabeth 
maried with John Howland, and hath issue as is 
before noted. 

Francis Cooke is still living, a very olde man, 
and hath scene his childrens children have chil- 
dren ; after his wife came over (with other of 
his children), he hath three still living by her, all 

8. maried, and have 5. children; so their increase 
is 8. And his sone John, which came over with 

4. him, is maried, and hath 4. chilldren living. 



286 APPENDIX 

Thomas Rogers dyed in the first sicknes, but 
his sone Joseph is still living, and is maried, and 

6. hath 6. children. The rest of Thomas Rogers 
(children) came over, & are maried, & have many 
children. 

Thomas Tinker and his wife and sone all dyed 
in the first sicknes. 

And so did John Rigdale and his wife. 

10. James Chilton and his wife also dyed in the 
first infection. But their daughter Mary is still 
living, and hath 9. children ; and one daughter 
is maried, & hath a child ; so their increase is 10. 

4. Edward Fuller and his wife dyed soon after 

they came ashore ; but their sone Samuell is 
living, & maried, and hath 4. children or more. 

John Turner and his 2. sones all dyed in the 
first siknes. But he hath a daughter still living 
at Salem, well maried, and approved of. 

4. Francis Eaton his first wife dyed in the generall 

sicknes ; and he maried againe, & his 2. wife 
dyed, & he maried the 3. and had by her 3. chil- 
dren. One of them is maried, & hath a child ; 
the other are living, but one of them is an ideote. 
He dyed about 16. years agoe. His sone Samuell, 
who came over a sucking child, is allso maried, & 
hath a child. 

Moyses Fletcher, Thomas Williams, Digerie 
Preist, John Goodman, Edmond Margeson, 
Richard Britteridge, Richard Clarke. All these 
dyed sone after their arivall, in the general sicknes 
that befell. But Digerie Preist had his wife & chil- 
dren sent hither afterwards, she being Mr, Allertons 
gister. But the rest left no posteritie here. 



APPENDIX 287 

Richard Gardinar became a seaman, and died 
in England, or at sea. 

Gilbert Winslow, after diverse years aboad here, 
returned into England, and dyed ther. 
6. Peter Browne maried twise. By his first wife 

he had 2. children, who are living, & both of them 
maried, and the one of them hath 2. children; 
by his second wife he had 2. more. He dyed 
about 16. years since. 

Thomas English and John AUerton dyed in the 
generall siknes. 

John Alden maried with Priscilla, Mr. Mollines his 
doughter, and had issue by her as is before related. 

Edward Doty & Edward Litster, the servants 
of Mr. Hopkins. Litster, after he was at liberty, 
went to Virginia, & ther dyed. But Edward Doty 
by a second wife hath 7. children, and both he and 
they are living. 

Of these 100. persons which came first over in 
this first ship together, the greater halfe dyed in 
the generall mortality; and most of them in 2. 
or three monthes time. And for those which 
survied, though some were ancient & past pro- 
creation, & others left ye place and cuntrie, yet 
of those few remaining are sprunge up above 160. 
persons, in this 30. years and are now living in 
this presente year, 1650. besides many of their 
children which are dead, and come not within 
this account. 

And of the old stock (of one & other) ther are 
yet living this present year, 1650. nere 30. persons. 
Let the Lord have ye praise, who is the High 
Preserver of men. 



288 APPENDIX 

A "COMIC RELIEF" CHAPTER IN PLYMOUTH HISTORY 

"The inhabitants of Pasonagessit," according to the 
chronicles of Thomas Morton ^ (having translated the 
name of their habitation from that ancient Salvage 
name to Ma-re Mount, and being resolved to have the 
new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages), 
"did devise amongst themselves to have it performed 
in a solemne manner, with Revels and merriment 
after the old English custome; [they] prepared to 
sett up a Maypole upon the festivall day of Philip 
and Jacob, and therefore brewed a barrell of excellent 
beare and provided a case of bottles, to be spent, with 
other good cheare, for all commers of that day. And 
because they would have it in a compleat forme, they 
had prepared a song fitting to the time and present 
occasion. And upon Mayday they brought the May- 
pole to the place appointed, with drumes, gunnes, 
pistols and other fitting instruments, for that purpose ; 
and there erected it with the help of Salvages, that 
came thether of purpose to see the manner of our 
Revels. A goodly pine tree of 80. foote longe was 
reared up, with a peare of buckshorns nay led one 
somewhat neare unto the top of it ; where it stood, 
as a faire sea marke for directions how to finde out 
the way to mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount. 

"And because it should more fully appeare to what 
end it was placed there, they had a poem in readiness 
made, which was fixed to the Maypole, to shew the 
new names confirmed upon that plantation ; which, 

^ This is from Chapter XIV of the "Second Booke" of the "New Canaan." 
I am indebted to the courtesy of the Prince Society for permission to repro- 
duce thus at length quotations from Morton's work heretofore inaccessible 
to "the general." 



APPENDIX 289 

allthough it were made according to the occurrents 
of the time, it being Enigmattically composed, pusselled 
the Separatists most pittifully to expound it, which, 
(for the better information of the reader), I have here 
inserted." 

(As the poem "pussells" me no less than it did the 
"Separatists" I have refrained from "pusselHng" my 
readers with it.) 

"The setting up of this Maypole was a lamentable 
spectacle to the precise seperatists, that lived at new 
Plimmouth. They termed it an Idoll; yea, they 
called it the Calfe of Horeb, and stood at defiance 
with the place, naming it Mount Dagon ; threatning 
to make it a woefull mount and not a merry mount. 

"The Riddle, for want of Oedipus, they could not 
expound; onely they made some explication of part 
of it, and sayd it was meant by Sampson lob, the 
carpenter of the shipp that brought over a woman to 
her husband, that had bin there longe before and 
thrived so well that hee sent for her and her children 
to come to him ; where shortly after hee died ; having 
no reason, but because of the sound of those two words ; 
when as, (the truth is), the man they applyed it to was 
altogether unknowne to the Author. 

"There was likewise a merry song made, which, (to 
make their Revells more fashionable,) was sung with 
a Corns, every man bearing his part; which they 
performed in a daunce, hand in hand about the May- 
pole, whiles one of the Company sung and filled out 
the good liquor, like gammedes and Jupiter. 



290 APPENDIX 

The Songe 

Drinke and be merry, merry, merry boyes ; 

Let all your delight be in the Hymens joyes ; 

lo to Hymen, now the day is come. 

About the merry Maypole take a Roome. 
Make greene garlons, bring bottles out 
And fill sweet Nectar freely about. 
Uncover thy head and feare no harme. 
For hers good liquor to keepe it warme. 

Then drinke and be merry, etc. 

lo to Hymen, etc. 

Nectar is a thing assign'd. 

By the Deities owne minde, 

To cure the hart opprest with greife, 

And of good liquors is the cheife. 

Then drinke, etc. 

lo to Hymen, etc. 

Give to the Mellancolly man 
A cup or two of 't now and than ; 
This physick will soone revive his blood 
And make him be of a merrier moode. 

Then drinke, etc. 

lo to Hymen, etc. 

Give to the Nymphe thats free from scorne. 
No Irish stuff nor Scotch over worne, 
Lasses in beaver coats come away, 
Yee shall be welcome to us night and day. 

To drinke and be merry, etc., 

lo to Hymen, etc. 

"This harmeles mirth made by younge men, (that 
lived in hope to have wifes brought over to them, that 



APPENDIX 291 

would save them a laboure to make a voyage to fetch 
any over), was much distasted of the precise Seperatists, 
that keepe much a doe about the tyth of Mint and 
Cummin, troubling their braines more then reason 
would require about things that are indifferent; and 
from that time sought occasion against my honest 
Host of Ma-re Mount, to overthrow his ondertakings 
and to destroy his plantation quite and cleane. But 
because they presumed with their imaginary gifts, 
(which they have out of Phaos box), they could ex- 
pound hidden misteries, to convince them of blindnes, 
as well in this as in other matters of more consequence, 
I will illustrate the poem, according to the true intent 
of the authors of these Revells, so much distasted by 
those Moles. 

"Oedipus is generally receaved for the absolute 
reader of riddles, who is invoaked : Silla and Caribdis 
are two dangerous places for seamen to incounter 
neere unto Venice; and have bin by poets formerly 
resembled to man and wife. The like licence the 
author challenged for a paire of his nomination, the 
one lamenting for the losse of the other as Niobe for 
her children. Amphitrite is an arme of the Sea, by 
which the newes was carried up and downe of a rich 
widow, now to be tane up or laid down. By Triton 
is the fame spread that caused the Suters to muster, 
(as it had bin to Penellope of Greece) ; and, the coast 
lying circular, all our passage to and froe is made more 
convenient by Sea then Land. Many aimed at this 
marke; but hee that played Proteus best and could 
comply with her humor must be the man that would 
carry her ; and hee had need have Sampsons strengtht 
to deale with a Dallila, and as much patience as Job 



292 APPENDIX 

that should come there, for a thing that I did observe 
in the Hfe-time of the former. 

"But marriage and hanging, (they say), comes by 
desteny and Scogans choice tis better [than] none at 
all. Hee that playd Proteus, (with the helpe of 
Priapus), put their noses out of joynt, as the Prov- 
erbe is. 

"And this the whole company of the Revellers at 
Ma-re Mount knew to be the true sence and exposition 
of the riddle that was fixed to the Maypole, which 
the Seperatists were at defiance with. Some of them 
affirmed that the first institution thereof was in mem- 
ory of a whore ; ^ not knowing that it was a Trophe 
errected at first in honor of Maja, the Lady of learning 
which they despise, vilifying the two universities with 
uncivile terms, accounting what is there obtained by 
studdy is but unnecessary learning; not considering 
that learninge does inable mens mindes to converse 
with eliments of a higher nature then is to be found 
within the habitation of the Mole." ^ 

We come now to the chapter in which our satirist 
describes his arrest at the hands of Standish, whom 
he calls Captain Shrimp. Bradford's sober version 
of this encounter we have already read. 

"The Separatists, envying the prosperity and hope 
of the Plantation at Ma-re Mount, (which they per- 
ceaved beganne to come forward, and to be in a good 
way for gaine in the Beaver trade), conspired together 
against mine Host especially, (who was the owner of 
that Plantation), and made up a party against him; 

1 "Ye Roman Gofides Flora," according to Bradford. 

* Here ends Chapter XIV. Morton, we see by this closing paragraph, 
chose constantly to ignore the fact that there were other university men 
than himself within the confines of the Plymouth Colony. 



APPENDIX 293 

and mustred up what aide they could, accounting him 
as of a great Monster. 

"Many threatening speeches were given out both 
against his person and his Habitation, which they 
divulged should be consumed with fire : And taking 
advantage of the time when his company, (which 
seemed little to regard theire threats) , were gone up 
into the Inlands to trade with the Salvages for Beaver, 
they set upon my honest host at a place called Wessa- 
guscus, where, by accident, they found him. The 
inhabitants there were in good hope of the subvertion 
of the plantation at Mare Mount, (which they prin- 
cipally aymed at;) and the rather because mine host 
was a man that indeavored to advaunce the dignity 
of the Church of England ; which they, (on the con- 
trary part), would laboure to vilifie with uncivile 
termes ; enveying against the sacred booke of common 
prayer, and mine host that used it in a laudable manner 
amongst his family, as a practise of piety. 

"There hee would be a meanes to bringe facks to 
their mill, (fuch is the thirst after Beaver), and helped 
the conspiratores to surprise mine host, (who was there 
all alone;) and they chardged him, (because they 
would seeme to have some reasonable cause against 
him to sett a glosse upon their mallice), with criminal 
things ; which indeede had beene done by such a 
person, but was of their conspiracy; mine host de- 
maunded of the conspirators who it was that was 
author of that information, that seemed to be their 
ground for what they now intended. And because 
they answered they would not tell him, hee as peremp- 
torily replyed, that hee would not say whether he had, 
or he had not done as they had bin informed. 



294 APPENDIX 

"The answere made no matter, (as it seemed), 
whether it had bin negatively or affirmatively made; 
for they had resolved what hee should suffer, because, 
(as they boasted), they were now become the greater 
number : they had shaked of their shackles of servi- 
tude, and were become Masters, and masteries people. 

"It appeares they were like beares whelpes in former 
time, when mine hosts plantation was of as much 
strength as theirs, but now, (theirs being stronger), 
they, (like overgrowne beares), seemed monsterous. 
In breife, mine host must indure to be their prisoner 
until they could contrive it so that they might send 
him for England, (as they said), there to suffer accord- 
ing to the merrit of the fact which they intended to 
father upon him supposing, (belike), it would prove a 
hainous crime. 

"Much rejoycing was made that they had gotten 
their capitall enemy, (as they concluded him) ; whome 
they purposed to hamper in such sort that hee should 
not be able to uphold his plantation at Ma-re Mount. 

"The Conspirators sported themselves at my honest 
host, that meant them no hurt, and were so joccund 
that they feasted their bodies, and fell to tippeling as 
if they had obtained a great prize; like the Trojans 
when they had the custody of Hippeus pinetree horse. 

"Mine host fained greefe, and could not be per- 
swaded either to eate or drinke; because he knew 
emptines would be a meanes to make him as watchfull 
as the Geese kept in the Roman Cappitall; whereon, 
the contrary part, the conspirators would be so drowsy 
that hee might have an opportunity to give them a 
slip, insteade of a tester. Six persons of the con- 
spiracy were set to watch him at Wessaguscus; But 



APPENDIX 295 

hee kept waking ; and in the dead of night (one lying 
on the bed for further suerty), up gets mine Host and 
got to the second dore that hee was to passe, which 
notwithstanding the lock, hee got open, and shut it 
after him with such violence that it affrighted some of 
the conspirators. 

"The word, which was given with an alarme, was, 
o he's gone, he's gon, what shall wee doe, he's gon ! 
The rest, (halfe a sleepe), start up in a maze, and, 
like rames, ran theire heads one at another full butt 
in the darke. 

"Their grande leader, Captaine Shrimp, took on 
most furiously and tore his clothes for anger, to see 
the empty nest, and their bird gone. 

"The rest were eager to have torne their haire from 
theire heads ; but it was so short that it would give 
them no hold. Now Captain Shrimp thought in the 
losse of this prize, (which hee accoumpted his Master 
peece), all his honor would be lost for ever. 

"In the mean time mine Host was got home to 
Ma-re Mount through the woods, eight miles round 
about the head of the river Monatoquit that parted 
the two Plantations, finding his way by the helpe of 
the lightening, (for it thundered as hee went terribly ;) 
and there hee prepared powther, three pounds dried, 
for his present employment, and foure good gunnes 
for him and the two assistants left at his howse, with 
bullets of severall sizes, three hounderd or there- 
abouts, to be used if the conspirators should pursue 
him thether : and these two persons promised theire 
aides in the quarrell, and confirmed that promise with 
health in good rosa solis. 

"Now Captaine Shrimp, the first Captaine in the 



296 APPENDIX 

Land, (as hee supposed), must doe some new act to 
repaire this losse, and, to vindicate his reputation, 
who had sustained blemish by this oversight, begins 
now to study, how to repaire or survive his honor: 
in this manner, callinge of Councell, they conclude. 

"He takes eight persons more to him, and, (like the 
nine Worthies of New Canaan), they imbarque with 
preparation against Ma-re-Mount, where this Monster 
of a man, as theire phrase was, had his denne; the 
whole number, had the rest not bin from home, being 
but seaven, would have given Captaine Shrimpe, (a 
quondam Drummer), such a wellcome as would have 
made him wish for a Drume as bigg as Diogenes tubb, 
that hee might have crept into it out of sight. 

"Now the nine Worthies are approached, and mine 
Host prepared : having intelligence by a Salvage, 
that hastened in love from Wessaguscus to give him 
notice of their intent. 

"One of mine Hosts men prooved a craven: the 
other had prooved his wits to purchase a little valoure, 
before mine Host had observed his posture. 

"The nine worthies comming before the Denne of 
this supposed Monster, (this seaven headed hydra, as 
they termed him,) and began, like Don Quixote against 
the Windmill, to beate a parly, and to offer quarter, 
if mine Host would yeald ; for they resolved to send 
him for England ; and bad him lay by his armes. 

"But hee, (who was the Sonne of a Souldier), having 
taken up armes in his just defence, reply ed that hee 
would not lay by those armes, because they were so 
needefull at Sea, if hee should be sent over. Yet, to 
save the effusion of so much worty bloud, as would 
haue issued out of the vaynes of these 9. worthies of 



APPENDIX 297 

New Canaan, if mine Host should have played upon 
them out at his port holes, (for they came within 
danger like a flocke of wild geese, as if they had bin 
tayled one to another, as coults to be sold at a faier), 
mine Host was content to yeelde upon quarter; and 
did capitulate with them in what manner it should be 
for more certainety, because hee knew what Captaine 
Shrimpe was. 

"Hee expressed that no violence should be offered 
to his person, none to his goods, nor any of his Howse- 
hold ; but that hee should have his armes, and what 
els was requisit for the voyage : which theire Herald 
retornes, it was agreed upon, and should be performed. 

"But mine Host no sooner had set open the dore, 
and issued out, but instantly Captaine Shrimpe and 
the rest of the worties stepped to him, layd hold of 
his armes, and had him downe ; and so eagerly was 
every man bent against him, (not regarding any agree- 
ment made with such a carnall man), that they fell 
upon him as if they would have eaten him : some of 
them were so violent that they would have a slice 
with scabbert, and all for haste ; until an old Souldier, 
(of the Queenes, as the Proverbe is), that was there by 
accident, clapt his gunne under the weapons, and 
sharply rebuked these worthies for their unworthy 
practises. So the matter was taken into more de- 
liberate consideration. 

" Captaine Shrimpe, and the rest of the nine worthies, 
made themselves, (by this outragious riot). Masters 
of mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount, and disposed of what 
hee had at his plantation. 

"This they knew, (in the eye of the Salvages), 
would add to their glory, and diminish the reputation 



298 APPENDIX 

of mine honest Host; whome they practised to be 
ridd of upon any termes, as wilHngly as if hee had 
bin the very Hidra of the time." 

Somehow as one reads this literary production of 
Thomas Morton, one is reminded of another Thomas, 
better known as Tommy, whom James M. Barrie 
has immortaHzed in our own time and who likewise 
had a gift for making himself the hero and central 
figure of all the adventures of which he was a part. 

Let us follow further this "Sentimental Tommy" of 
an earlier day : ^ 

"The nine worthies of New Canaan having now 
the Law in their owne hands, (there being no generall 
Governour in the Land; nor none of the Seperation 
that regarded the duety they owe their Soveraigne, 
whose naturall borne Subjects they were, though 
translated out of Holland, from whence they had 
learned to worke all to their owne ends, and make a 
great shewe of Religion, but no humanity), for they 
were now to sit in Counsell on the cause. 

"And much it stood mine honest Host upon to be very 
circumspect, and to take Eacus ^ to taske ; for that 
his voyce was more allowed of then both the other : 
and had not mine Host confounded all the arguments 
that Eacus could make in their defence, and confuted 
him that swaied the rest, they would have made him 
unable to drinke in such manner of merriment any 
more. So that following this private counsell, given 
him by one that knew who ruled the rost, the Hiracano 
ceased that els would split his pinace. 

1 We come now to Chapter XVI of the third book of "The New English 
Canaan." 

2 The reference here is supposed to be to Doctor Samuel Fuller, the 
physician of the Colony. 



APPENDIX 299 

"A conclusion was made and sentence given that 
mine Host should be sent to England a prisoner. 
But when hee was brought to the shipps for that pur- 
pose, no man durst be so foole hardy as to undertake 
carry him.^ So these Worthies set mine Host upon 
an Island, without gunne, powther, or shot or dogge 
or so much as a knife to get any thinge to feede upon, 
or any other cloathes to shelter him with at winter 
then a thinne suite which hee had one at that time. 
Home hee could not get to Ma-re-Mount. Upon this 
Island hee stayed a moneth at least, and was re- 
leeved by Salvages that took notice that mine Host 
was a Sachem of Passonagessit, and would bringe 
bottles of strong liquor to him, and unite them- 
selves into a league of brother hood with mine Host; 
so full of humanity are these infidels before those 
Christians. 

"From this place for England sailed mine Host in 
a Plimmouth shipp, (that came into the Land to fish 
upon the Coast,) that landed him safe in England 
at Plimmouth : and he stayed in England untill the 
ordinary time for shipping to set forth for these parts, 
and then retorned : ^ Noe man being able to taxe him 
of any thinge. 

"But the Worthies, (in the meane time), hoped they 
had bin ridd of him." 

They did, indeed ! But let the gifted Thomas tell 
this tale, too, as he proceeds to do in a short chapter 
(XVII of Book III) and a long and altogether senseless 

1 Morton here confuses his 1628 experience in Plymouth with what befell 
him in Boston two years later. 

^ It was really not until towards the close of the summer of the next year 
that Morton returned to Massachusetts, in company with AUerton, as we 
have seen. 



300 APPENDIX 

poem to which, however, he devotes a long explanation 
as follows : 

"Now to illustrate this Poem, and make the sence 
more plaine, it is to be considered that the Persons at 
Ma-re-Momit were seaven, and they had seaven heads 
and 14 feete; these were accounted Hidra with the 
seaven heads : and the Maypole, with the Homes 
nailed neere the topp, was the forked tayle of this 
supposed Monster, which they (for want of skill), 
imposed : yet feared in time, (if they hindred not 
mine Host), hee would hinder the benefit of their 
Beaver trade, as hee had done, (by meanes of this 
helpe), in Kynyback river finely, ere they were awares ; 
who, comming too late, were much dismaide to finde 
that mine Host his boate had gleaned away all before 
they came; which Beaver is a fitt companion for 
Scarlett : and I beleeve that Jasons golden Fleece 
was either the same, or some other Fleece not of so 
much value. 

"This action bred a kinde of hart burning in the 
Plimmouth Planters, who after sought occasion against 
mine Host to overthrowe his undertakings and to 
destroy his Plantation ; whome they accounmpted a 
maine enemy to theire Church and State. 

"Now when they had begunne with him, they 
thought best to proceede : forasmuch as they thought 
themselves farre enough from any controule of Justice, 
and therefore resolved to be their owne carvers : (and 
the rather because they presumed upon some in- 
couragement they had from the favourites of their 
Sect in England :) and with fire and sword, nine in 
number, pursued mine Host, who had escaped theire 
hands, in scorne of what they intended, and betooke 



APPENDIX 301 

him to his habitation in a night of great thunder and 
lightening, when they durst not follow him, as hardy 
as these nine worthies seemed to be. 

"It was in the Moneth of June that these Marshal- 
lists had appointed to goe about this mischeifous proj- 
ect, and deale so crabbidly with mine Host. 

"After a parly, hee capitulated with them about 
the quarter they proffered him, if hee would content 
to goe for England, there to answere, (as they pre- 
tended), some thing they could object against him 
principall to the generall : But what it would be hee 
cared not, neither was it anything material!. 

"Yet when quarter was agreed upon, they, con- 
trary wise, abused him, and carried him to theire 
towne of Plimmouth, where, (if they had thought 
hee durst have gone to England), rather then they 
would have bin any more affronted by him they would 
have dispatched him, as Captaine Shrimp in a rage 
prof est that hee would doe with his Pistoll, as mine 
Host should set his foote into the boate. Howsoever, 
the cheife Elders voyce in that place was more power- 
full than any of the rest, who concluded to send mine 
Host without any other thing to be done to him. 
And this being the finall agreement, (contrary to 
Shrimpe and others), the nine worthies had a great 
Feast made, and the furmity ^ pott was provided for 
the boats gang by no allowance : and all manner of 
pastime. 

"Captaine Shrimpe was so overjoyed in the per- 
formance of this exployt, that they had, at that time, 
extraordinary merriment, (a thing not usuall amongst 

1 Apparently the allusion here is to frumenty which, according to Webster, 
is wheat boiled in milk, seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, etc. 



302 APPENDIX 

those presisians) ; and when the winde served they 
tooke mine Host into their Shallop, hoysed Saile, and 
carried him to the Northern parts ; where they left 
him upon a Island." 

Now we come to a chapter in which is related the story 
of a great Bonfire made for joy of the arrival of great 
Josua, surnamed Temper well, into the Land of Canaan.^ 

"Seaven shipps set forth at once, and altogether 
arrived in the Land of Canaan, to take a full posses- 
sion thereof : What are all the 12. Tribes of new 
Israeli come? No, none but the tribe of Issacar, and 
some few scattered Levites of the remnant of those 
that were descended of old Elies Howse. 

"And here comes their Josua, too among them; 
and they make it a more miraculous thing for theire 
seaven shipps to set forth together, and arrive at New 
Canaan together, then it was for the Israelites to goe 
over Jordan drishod ; perhaps it was, because they 
had a wall on the right hand and a wall on the left 
hand. 

"These Seperatists suppose there was no more 
difficulty in the matter then for a man to finde the 
way to the Counter at noone dayes, betweene a Ser- 
geant and his yeoman : Now you may thinke mine 
Host will be hampered or never. 

"There are the men that come prepared to ridd the 
Land of all pollution. These are more fubtile then 
the Cunning, that did refuse a goodly heap of gold. 

^ The arrival of Winthrop's fleet in June, 1630, is here referred to. It 
has already been stated that Josua Temperwell is intended for Governor 
Winthrop. It will be noticed that Morton, much as he disliked him, always 
refers to Winthrop, if not with respect, yet with a certain restraint of tone 
and insinuation which he did not show to others, such as Endicott, Fuller, 
and Standish. 



APPENDIX 303 

These men have brought a very snare indeed; and 
now mine Host must suffer. The Book of Common 
Prayer, which hee used, to be despised : and hee must 
not be spared. 

"Now they are come, his doome before hand was 
concluded on : they have a warrant now : A cheife 
one too : and now mine Host must know hee is the 
subject of their hatred : the Snare must now be used ; 
this instrument must not be brought by Josua in vaine. 

*'A Court is called of purpose for mine host : hee 
there con vented, and must heare his doome before 
hee goe : nor will they admitt him to capitulate, and 
know wherefore they are so violent to put such things 
in practise against a man they never saw before : now 
will they allow of it, though hee decline their juris- 
diction. 

"There they all with one assent put him to silence, 
crying out, heare the Governour, heare the Govern : 
who gave this sentence against mine Host at first 
sight : that he should be first put in the Billbowes, 
his goods should be all confiscated, his Plantation 
should be burned downe to the ground, because the 
habitation of the wicked should no more appeare in 
Israeli, and his person banished from those terri- 
tories ; and this put in execution with all speede. 

"The harmeles Salvages, (his neighboures) , came the 
while, (greived, poore filly lambes, to see what they 
went about), and did reproove these Eliphants of 
witt for their inhumane deede : the Lord above did 
open their mouthes like Balams Asse, and made them 
speake in his behalfe sentences of unexpected divinity, 
besides morrallity ; and toule them that god would 
not love them that burned this good mans howse; 



304 APPENDIX 

and plainely sayed that they who were new come would 
finde the want of such a howses in the winter : so 
much themselves to him confest. 

"The smoake that did assend appeared to be the 
very Sacrifice of Kain. Mine Host, (that a farre of 
abourd a ship did there behold this wofull spectacle) 
knew not what hee should doe in this extremity but 
beare and forbeare, as Epictetus sayes : it was boote- 
leffe to exclaime. 

"Hee did consider then these transitory things are 
but ludibria fortunae, as Cicero calls them. All was 
burnt downe to the ground, and nothing did remaine 
but the bare ashes as an embleme of their cruelty : 
and unles it could, (like to the Phenix), rise out of 
these ashes and be new againe, (to the immortall 
glory and renowne of this fertile Canaan the new), 
the stumpes and postes in their black liveries will 
mourne; and piety it selfe will add a voyce to the 
bare remnant of that Monument, and make it cry 
for recompence, (or else revenge), against the Sect of 
cruell Schismaticks." 

And now we are to listen to a sermon from Thomas 
Morton on Charity. He calls this peroration "The 
Charity of the Seperatists." ^ 

"Charity is sayd to be the darling of Religion, and 
is indeed the Marke of a good Christian : But where 
we doe finde a Commission for ministring to the 
necessity of the Saints, we doe not finde any prohibi- 
tion against casting our bread upon the water, where 
the unsanctified, as well as the sanctified, are in possi- 
bility to make use of it. 

1 Thus is Chapter XXVI of Book III of "The New English Canaan", a 
highly malicious and grossly untrue piece of writing, as we know from 
repeated evidence of the kindness of the Pilgrims to sick Indians and others. 



APPENDIX 305 

"I cannot perceave that the Seperatists doe allow 
of helping our poore, though they magnify their prac- 
tise in contributing to the nourishment of their Saints ; 
For as much as some that are of the number of those 
whom they terme without, (though it were in case of 
sicknesse), upon theire landing, when a little fresh 
victuals would have recovered their healths, yet could 
they not finde any charitable assistance from them. 
Nay, mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, (if hee might have 
had the use of his guniie, powther and shot, and his 
dogg, which were denied), hee doubtles would have 
preserved such poore helples wretches as were neg- 
lected by those that brought them over; which was 
so apparent, (as it seemed), that one of their own 
tribe said, the death of them would be required at 
some bodies hands one day, (meaning Master Temper- 
well). 

"But such good must not come from a carnall 
man : if it come from a member, then it is a sanctified 
worke ; if otherwise, it is rejected as unsanctified. 

"But when Shackles wife, and such as had husbands, 
parents or freinds, happened to bee sick, mine Hosts 
helpe was used, and instruments provided for him to 
kill fresh vittell with, (wherein hee was industrious), 
and the persons, having fresh vittell, lived. 

" So doubtles might many others have bin preserved, 
but they were of the number left without ; neither will 
those precise people admit a carnall man into their 
howses, though they have made use of his in the like 
case ; they are such antagonists to those that doe not 
comply with them, and seeke to be admitted to be of 
their Church, that in scorne they say, you may see 
what it is to be without." 



306 APPENDIX 

But the crowning insult of this extraordinary piece 
of writing is to be found in the chapter which follows 
and which is called "Of the practise of their Church." 
This is the most significant chapter of the whole book 
and was deliberately designed to act on the well-known 
prejudices of Archbishop Laud, the head and controlling 
spirit of that Board of Lords Commissioners of Foreign 
Plantations which then had supreme authority over the 
Colonies. Morton dedicated his book to this Board, 
which at this very time was taking active measures 
to vacate the Massachusetts Charter and to assume 
the direct government of the colonies. Over against 
Morton's account of religious life in Plymouth one 
would do well to set that of Lechford — a lawyer by 
profession — who though a devout member of the 
Church of England, has given us in his Plaine Dealing 
a trustworthy description of the practice of the New 
England churches during the earliest days of the 
settlement. 

"The Church of the Seperatists," our propagandist 
begins, "is governed by Pastors, Elders and Deacons, 
and there is not any of these, though hee be but a 
Cow keeper, but is allowed to exercise his guifts in 
the publik assembly on the Lords day,^ so as hee doe 
not make use of any notes for the helpe of his mem- 
ory : for such things, they say, smell of Lampe oyle, 
and there must be no such unsavery perfume admitted 
to come into the congregation. 

"These are all publike preachers. There is amongst 
these people a Deakonesse, made of the sisters, that 

'"Teaching in the church publicly" was charged against Winslow in 
1634 before the Lords Commissioners; and at Archbishop Laud's "ve- 
hement importunity" the distinguished Pilgrim was at this time com- 
mitted to the Fleet. 



APPENDIX 307 

uses her guifts at home in an assembly of her sexe, 
by way of repetition or exhortation. Such is their 
practise. 

*'The Pastor, (before hee is allowed of), must dis- 
claime his former calling to the Ministry, as hereticall ; 
and take a new calling after their fantasticall inven- 
tions : and then hee is admitted to bee their Pastor. 

"The manner of disclaimeing is, to renounce his 
calling with bitter execrations, for the time that hee 
hath heretofore lived in it : and after his new election, 
there is great joy conceaved at his commission.^ 

"And theire Pastors have this preheminence above 
the Civil Magistrate : Hee must first consider of the 
complaint made against a member : and if hee be 
disposed to give the partie complained of an ad- 
monition, there is no more to be said : if not ; Hee 
delivers him over to the Magistrate to deale with 
him in a course of Justice, according to theire practise 
in cases of that nature. 

"Of these pastors I have not knowne many: some 
I have observed together with theire carriage in New 
Canaan, and can informe you what opinion hath bin 
conceaved of theire conditions in the perticuler. There 
is one who, (as they give it out there that thinke they 
speake it to advaunce his worth), has bin expected to 
exercise his gifts in an assembly that stayed his com- 
ming, in the middest of his Jorney falls into a fitt, 
(which they terme a zealous meditation), and was 4. 
miles past the place appointed before hee came to 
himselfe, or did remember where abouts hee went. 
And how much these things are different from the 

* It takes little imagination to see how Archbishop Laud would have 
foamed at the mouth at this piece of misinformation and at the equally 
malicious paragraph concerning the "deaconess." 



308 APPENDIX 

actions of mazed men, I leave to any Indifferent man 
to judge ; and if I should say they are all much alike, 
they that have seene and heard what I have done, will 
not condemne mee altogether. 

"Now, for as much as by the practise of theire 
Church every Elder or Deacon may preach, it is not 
amisse to discover their practise in that perticuler, 
before I part with them. 

"It has bin an old saying, and a true, what is bred 
in the bone will not out of the flesh, nor the stepping 
into the pulpit that can make the person fitt for the 
imployment. The unfitnes of the person undertaking 
to be the Messenger has brought a blemish upon 
the message, as in the time of Lewes the Eleventh, 
King of France, who, (having advaunced his Barber 
to place of Honor, and graced him with eminent 
titles), made him so presumptuous to undertake an 
Embassage to treat with forraine princes of Civile 
affaires. 

"But what was the issue .f* Hee behaved himself e 
so unworthily, (yet as well as his breeding would give 
him leave), that both the Messenger and the message 
were despised; and had not hee, (being discovered), 
conveyed himselfe out of their territories, they had 
made him pay for his barbarous presumption. 

"Socrates sayes, loquere ut te videam. If a man 
observe these people in the exercise of their gifts, hee 
calling, the asses eares will peepe through the lyons 
hide. I am sorry they cannot discerne their owne 
infirmities. I will deale fairely with them, for I will 
draw their pictures cap a pe, that you may discerne 
them plainely from head to foote in their postures, 
that so much bewitch, (as I may speake with modesty). 



APPENDIX 309 

these illiterate people to be so fantasticall, to take 
lonas taske upon them without sufficient warrant.^ 

"One steps up like the Minister of Justice with the 
ballance onely, not a sword for feare of affrighting his 
auditory. Hee poynts at a text, and handles it as 
evenly as hee can ; and teaches the auditory, that the 
thing hee has to deliver must be well waied, for it is 
a very pretious thing, yes, much more pretious then 
gold or pearle : and hee will teach them the meanes 
how to way things of that excellent worth; that a 
man would suppose hee and his auditory were to part 
stakes by the scale; and the like distribution they 
have used about a bag pudding. 

"Another, (of a more cutting disposition), steps in 
his steed ; and hee takes a text, which hee divides 
into many parts : (to speake truly) as many as hee 
list. The fag end of it hee pares away, as a superfluous 
remnant. 

"Hee puts his auditory in comfort, that hee will 
make a garment for them, and teach them how they 
shall put it on ; and incourages them to be in love 
with it, for it is of such a fashion as doth best become 
a Christian man. Hee will assuer them that it shall 
be armor of proffe against all assaults of Satan. This 
garment, (sayes hee), is not composed as the garments 
made by a carnall man, that are sowed with a hot 
needle and a burning thread ; but it is a garment 
that shall out last all the garments ; and, if they will 
make use of it as hee shall direct them, they shall be 
able, (like saint George,) to terrific the greate Dragon, 
error; and defend truth, which error with her wide 
chaps would devoure; whose mouth shall be filled 

1 Jonah or Jonas being the first Hebrew prophet sent to a heathen nation. 



SIO APPENDIX 

with the shredds and parings, which hee continually 
gapes for under the cutting bourd. 

"A third, hee supplies the rome; and in the exercise 
of his guifts begins with a text that is drawne out of a 
fount aine that has in it no dreggs of popery. This 
shall proove unto you, (says hee), the Cup of repent- 
ance : it is not like unto the Cup of the Whore of 
Babilon, who will make men drunk with the dreggs 
thereof : it is filled up to the brim with comfortable 
Joyce, and will proove a comfortable cordiall to a sick 
f oule, sayes hee. And so hee handles the matter as if hee 
dealt by the pinte and quarte, with Nic and Froth.' 

"An other, (a very learned man indeed), goes another 
way to worke with his auditory ; and exhorts them to 
walke upright, in the way of their calling, and not, 
(like carnall men,) tread awry. And if they should 
fayle in the performance of that duety, yet they should 
seeke for amendement whiles it was time; and tells 
them it would bee to late to seek for help when the 
shop windows were shutt up : and pricks them for- 
ward with a freindly admonition not to place theire 
delight in worldly pleasures, which will not last, but 
in time will come to an end ; but so to handle the 
matter that they may be found to wax better and 
better, and then they shall be doublely rewarded for 
theire worke: and so closes up the matter in a com- 
fortable manner. 

"But stay: Here is one stept up in haste, and, 
(being not minded to hold his auditory in expectation 
of any long discourse), hee takes a text; and, (for 

^ Nic, or more correctly, nick, namely, "a raised or indented bottom in 
a beer-can, by which the customers were cheated, the nick below and the 
froth above filling up part of the measure." — Wright's "Dictionary of 
Obsolete and Provincial English." 



APPENDIX 311 

brevities sake), divides it into one part: and then 
runnes so fast a fore with the matter, that his auditory 
cannot follow him. Doubtles his Father was some 
Irish footeman ; ^ by his speede it seemes so. And it 
may be at the howre of death, the sonne, being present, 
did participat of his Fathers nature, (according to 
Pithagoras), and so the vertue of his Fathers nimble 
feete being infused into his braines, might make his 
tongue outrunne his wit. 

"Well, if you marke it, these are special gifts in- 
deede : which the vulgar people are so taken with, 
that there is no pers wading them that it is so ridiculous. 

"This is the meanes, (O the meanes), that they 
pursue : This that comes without premeditation ; 
This is the Suparlative : and hee that does not ap- 
proove of this, they say is a very reprobate. 

"Many unwarrantable Tenents they have likewise: 
some of which being come to my knowledge I wil here 
set downe : one whereof, being in publicke practise 
maintained, is more notorious then the rest. I will 
therefore beginne with that, and convince them of 
manifest error by the maintenance of it, which is this : 

"That it is the Magistrates office absolutely, (and 
not the Minsters), to joyne the people in lawful matri- 
mony. And for this they vouch the History of Ruth, 
saying Boas was married to Ruth in presence of the 
Elders of the people. Herein they mistake the scope 
of the text. 

"2. That it is a relique of popery to make use of a 
ring in marriage : and that it is a diabolicall circle for 
the Divell to daunce in. 

1 Footmen were originally men who ran on foot ahead of the coaches to 
notify innkeepers that guests might soon be expected. 



312 APPENDIX 

"3. That the purification used for weomen after 
delivery is not to be used. 

"4. That no child shall be baptised whose parents 
are not receaved into their Church first. 

"5. That no person shall be admitted to the Sacra- 
ment of the Lords supper that is without.^ 

"6. That the booke of Common prayer is an idoll : 
and all that use it, Idolaters. 

"7. That every man is bound to beleeve a professor 
upon his bare aflarmation onely, before a Protestant 
upon oath. 

"8. That no person hath any right to Gods crea- 
tures, but Gods children onely, who are themselves : 
and that all others are but usurpers of the Creatures. 

"9. And that, for the generall good of their Church 
and commonwealth, they are to neglect father, mother 
and all friendship. 

"10. Much a doe they keepe about their Church 
discipline, as if that were the most essentiall part of 
their Religion. Tythes are banished from thence, all 
except the tyth of Mint and Commin. 

"11. They differ from us something in the creede 
too, for if they get the goods of one, that is without, 
into their hands, hee shall be kept without remedy 
for any satisfaction : and they beleeve that this is 
not cosenage. 

"12. And lastly they differ from us in the manner 
of praying ; for they winke ^ when they pray, because 
they thinke themselves so perfect in the highe way to 
heaven that they can find it blindfould : So doe not I." 

^ "Without" was commonly used by Bradford, also, as meaning outside 
the church. 

^ An obsolete use of the word tvink is "to shut the eyes" (Worcester). 



APPENDIX 313 

Three more chapters there are in "The New English 
Canaan", but with this one with its skillful pandering 
to the prejudices of Laud we may well close. It did 
a good deal of mischief for the Plymouth Colony in 
England, as it was meant to do; but being largely 
lies, its effects were not lasting. For us of to-day its 
sole appeal lies in its humorous exaggerations. 



INDEX 



"Aaron and Moses of the New 
EngIuAnd Enterprise," 58 

Aborigines, 138, 142, 178 

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr., 248, 249 

Adams, John Quincy, 101, 246, 249 

" A Dialogue, or the sum of a Confer- 
ence Between some young men 
born in New England and sun- 
dry ancient men that came out 
of Holland and Old England, 
Anno Domini, 1648," 233 

"Adventurers," 53, 54, 117, 121, 
124, 125, 208, 209, 210 
Terms of, 53, 54 

Agawam Point (Frenchman's Point), 
118 note 

Ainsworth, Henry, 31, 41, 215 

Alden, John, 94, 109, 181 note, 182, 
281, 284, 287 

Alden, Priscilla. See Mullins, Pris- 

CILLA 

Alexander (son of Massasoit), 171 
AUerton, Bartholomew, 279, 283 
AUerton, Isaack, 94, 132, 148, 151, 

181 note, 182, 234, 256, 279, 283 
AUerton, John, 181 7wte, 281, 287 
AUerton, Mary, 182, 279, 283 
AUerton, Mary (daughter of Isaack 

AUerton), 279, 283 
AUerton, Remember, 279, 283 
All Souls College, Oxford, 230 
Ames, Dr. Azel, his "Log of the 

Mayflower," 52 
Amsterdam, 4, 10, 16, 22, 30, 31, 32, 

34, 35, 36, 38, 42, 232, 249, 

268 
Church of, 42, 268 



Amusements, in England, 68, 69, 70, 
71,72 
Holland, 46 

New England, 114, 198, 250, 258, 
262, 263, 288, 289, 301 

"Anatomy of Abuses" (Stubbes) 
250 note 

"Anatomy of Melancholy" (Bur- 
ton), 68, note 

"An Appeal to the Parliament, or 
Sion's Plea Against the Prela- 
cie" (Leigh ton), 81 

" Anciente Church," Amsterdam, 36 

Animals in New England, 96, 105, 
112, 124, 125, 128, 131, 132, 133, 
134, 140, 142, 146, 178, 182, 186, 
191, 195, 196, 207, 208, 235, 252, 
270, 273, 274 

"An Itinerary" (Moryson), 37 note 

Anne, the ship, 115, 206, 240 

Aptucxet, 119 

Arber, Edward, 52, 98 

Arlington, Lord, 85 

Arnold, Benedict, 13 

Ascham, Roger, 06 

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 66 

Assowamsett Pond, Plymouth, 172 

Athletics in England, 69 

Austerfield (Eng.), 22, 23, 39. 58, 
231, 278 

Bacon, Francis, "History Vitse et 

Mortis," 68, 83 
Bacon, Nathaniel, 178 
Barbadoes, 239, 284 
Barnstable, 178 
Baro, Peter, 2 



315 



316 



INDEX 



Barrie, James M., 298 

Barry, John, 237 

"Bay Psalm Book," 215, 217 

Bayard, Honorable T. F., 22, 238 

Beaumont, Francis, 68 

Benet Church, 7 

Benet College (Corpus Christi), 
Cambridge, 3, 6, 11 

Billington, see Billinton 

Billinton, Ellen, 280 

Billinton, Francis, 280, 285 

Billinton, John, 181 note; 280, 285 

Billinton, John, Jr., 280, 285 

Bircher, Edward, 132 

Black Death, in England, 6 

Blacksmithing, in Plymouth, 105 

Blessed Virgin, Guild of the, Cam- 
bridge (Eng.), 5 

Blommaert, Samuel, 118 

Blossom, Thomas, 267, 268 

Board of Lords Commissioners of 
Foreign Plantations, 306 

Boardman, Luce, 192, 193 

Boardman, Thomas, 192, 193 

Bodleian Library, 3 

"Boke of Nurture or Schole of good 
manners" (Rhodes), 84 

Books (Early) about Plymouth, 
230-257 

" Book About the Table " (Jeaffreson), 
88 

"Book of Old Plymouth Wills" 
(Poole), 273 note 

"Booke which sheweth the Life and 
Manners of all true Christians" 
(Browne), 20 note 

Books, Making of, 40, 44, 48, 49, 50, 
64, 215, 238, 239, 244, 275 

Books in the possession of the Pil- 
grims, 272 

Borde, Dr. Andrew, 83, 84 

"Sleep, Rising and Dress," 83 note 
"Dyetary," 84 

Boston Athenaeum, 244, 250 

Boston (Eng.), 28 

Boston (Mass.), 49, 108, 163, 171, 
173, 193, 210, 228, 234 note, 239, 
244, 248, 299 note 



Boston Common, 203, 260 

Bow (Eng.), 73 

Boys, Edward, 31, 32 

Boys, Mrs. Thomasine, 31, 32, 34 
See also Johnson, Mrs. Francis 

Bradford, Alice, 22, 133, 136, 231, 
240 

Bradford, Dorothy, 232, 279, 283 

Bradford, John (Grandson of Gov- 
ernor Bradford), 233, 269 

Bradford, Samuel (Great-Grandson 
of Governor Bradford), 233 

Bradford, William (Father of Gov- 
ernor Bradford), 22, 230 

Bradford, William, Jr., 233 

Bradford, William (Governor of 
Plymouth Colony), 2, 14, 17, 19, 
22, 23, 26, 29, 30, 31, 35, 39, 42, 
43, 45, 56, 57, 86, 94, 99, 107, 
109, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 120, 
121, 122, 124, 125, 134, 142, 143, 
151, 156, 160, 161, 163, 165, 181 
note, 191, 195, 196, 202, 204, 206, 
207, 209, 210, 211, 213, 221, 225, 
226, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 
236, 238, 240, 245, 246, 250, 252, 
253, 254, 255, 256, 272, 273, 275, 
277, 278, 279, 283, 292, 312 note 

"History", 233 

"A Dialogue or the sum of a 
Conference Between some young 
men that came out of Holland 
and Old England, A. D. 1648 ", 
233 

"Bradford House, the", Austerfield 
(Eng.), 23 

Bray, Thomas, 194 

Brewer, Thomas, 44, 49 

Brewster, Love, 279, 283 

Brewster, Maiy, 279, 283 

Brewster, William, 2, 3, 14, 15, 16, 
17, 18, 19, 21, 24, 28, 29, 30, 39 
40, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53, 57 
63, 68, 134, 151, 180, 181 note, 
205, 208, 212, 231, 264, 279, 283 

Brewster, Wrasling, 279, 283 

Bridgewater, 174 

" Brief Narrative of the true grounds 



INDEX 



317 



of cause of the first planting of 
New England" (Winslow), 240 

Brinsley, John, 65, 66 

"The Grammar School", 66 note 

Bristol (Eng.), 79 note 

Bristol, Maine, 152 

Britteridge, Richard, 181 note, 281, 286 

Brown, Peter, 181 note, 281, 287 

Browne, Robert, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 24 
"Booke which sheweth the Life 
and Manners of all true Chris- 
tians ", 20 note 

Brownists, 5, 13 

Bucke, Isacke, 262 

Buildings, in England, 73, 74, 75 
in Holland, 55 

in Plymouth, 110, 111, 112, 113, 
121, 126, 131, 173, 175, 201, 212, 
214, 219, 269, 272, 275, 304 
of the Indians, 112, 140, 141, 158, 
168 

Bulwer, Dr. John, 87 

"Man Transformed, or the Arti- 
ficial Changeling, Pedigree of 
the English Gallant ", 87 

"Bundling", 46 note, 192 

Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, 12, 27 

Burrage, Champlin, 3, 116 

Button, William, 95, 280, 284 

Buzzard's Bay, 118 note 

Calais, 61, 72 

Calderwood, David, "Perth As- 
sembly", 50 
"Calfeof Horeb", 289 
Calvin, John, 19 
Calvinists, 2, 220, 264 
Cambridge (Eng.), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 

10, 11, 13, 14, 39, 211 
Cambridge (Mass.), 216, 239 
Cambridge, Sir John, 7 
Cambridge University, 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 

11, 13, 14, 48, 66, 67, 68, 211 
" Cannaday ", 98 
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 9, 51 
Cape Cod, 97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 104, 

105, 110, 111, 119, 144, 200, 205, 
251, 254, 270, 277 



Cape Malabar, 119 

"Captain John Smith" (Arber), 98 

note 
"Captain Shrimpe", 255, 292, 295, 

296, 297, 301 
Card Playing, 70, 258 
Carew, Thomas, 68 
Carleton, Sir Dudley, 50 
Carpenter, Alice. See South worth, 

Mrs. Edward, 233 
Carpentry, 105, 106, 112, 269, 289 
Carter, Robart, 280, 284 
Cartwright, Thomas, 2, 3 
Carver, John, 103, 112, 148, 150, 151, 

152, 182, 183, 279, 282 
Carver, Kathrine, 279, 282 
Cattle, see Animals 
Champlain, Samuel De, 104 
Charity, the ship, 124, 160, 209 
Charles II, 84, 98, 130, 189, 190, 224, 

265 
Charlestown, 131 
Chaucer, 19 
Chauncey, Charles, 212 
Cheapside (Eng.), 81, 82 
Chesapeake, 91 
Child marriage in England, 85 
Chilton, James, 181 note, 281, 286 
Chilton, Mary, 108, 109, 281, 286 
Chilton ville, 108 
Church, Captain Benjamin, 175 
Church Covenant, 180 
Church dignitaries, 205, 208, 212, 

213, 214, 220, 231, 264, 301, 306, 

308, 311 
Church feast days, 69 
Church government, 41, 42, 201, 

204, 205, 218, 219, 220, 221, 249, 
306, 307, 308, 311, 312 

Church of England, 4, 10, 12, 13, 17. 
23, 24, 47, 50, 71, 80, 81, 92, 

205, 206, 208, 221, 246, 247, 
293, 306 

Church of the Pilgrims. See Pilgrim 

Church 
Church of Scotland, 20, 50 
Clark, James, 234 note 
Clarke, Richard, 181 note. 281. 286 



318 



INDEX 



Clarke, Susan, 267 
Clarke, WUliam, 124. 174 
Clarke, Mrs. William, 174 
Clark's Island, 109, 144 
Class distinctions 
England, 77, 89 

New England, 126, 127, 260, 263 
Clergy. 186. 187, 200, 201, 205, 206, 

208, 211, 212, 218, 219, 220, 221, 

222, 247, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311 
Clifton, Richard, 17, 231, 233 
Climate, 111, 112, 113, 141, 143, 207, 

295, 300 
Clink prison, 31, 32 
Cogan, Thomas, 89 
"Collections concerning the Early 

History of the Founders of Port 

Plymouth" (Hunter), 231 
College of Corpus Christi and the 

Blessed Mary, 3, 5, 6 
Collier, William, 226 
Commerce. See Trade 
Committee of Safety, 210 
"Common House ", 112, 204 note 
"Common Provision Shed ", 113 
Communism, 118 

" Company of true Christians," 181 
Comparison of Amsterdam Church 

and Leyden Church, 42 
Comparison of Cambridge (Eng.), 

and Leyden (Holland), 39 
Comparison of Cape Cod and the 

Leyden country, 103 
"Complete View of the Dress and 

Habits of the People of England" 

(Strutt), 86 note 
Confederation, see Unity of Colonies 

of New England 
Congregationalism, 10, 11, 179 
Congregational Church, 12, 41 
Connecticut Colony, 125, 164, 173, 225 
Converse, Sarah, 131 
Cooke, Francis, 181 note, 280, 285 
Cooke, John, 280, 285 
Cooking in England, 76 

in Plymouth, 157, 158, 270, 271 
of the Indians, 157 
on the Mayflower, 96 



Coote, Edmund, "The English 
Schoolmaster", 65 

Coper, Humility, 280, 285 

Copping, John, 12 

Cornwall (Eng.), 73 

Corpus Christi and the Blessed Mary, 
College of, 3, 5, 6 

Corpus Christi (Benet) College, 
Cambridge, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 

Corpus Christi, Festival of. 5, 7, 8 

Corpus Christi. Guild of, 5, 7 

Cotton, Rev. John, Jr., 213 

Council of New England, 251 

Court of Associates, 188 

Court of St. James, 22 

Courts, in New England, 139, 171, 
182, 183, 184, 188, 189, 190, 191, 
193, 194, 195, 226, 227, 238, 243, 
258, 259, 261, 262, 265, 276, 277, 
303 {See also General Court) 

Courtship in Holland, 46 
New England, 260 

Coventry (Eng.), 73 

Cowles, Elizabeth. 131 

Cowles, Robert, 132 

Crackston, John, 181 note, 280, 284 

Crackston, John, Jr., 280, 284 

Crimes, Reasons for, in Plymouth, 
196, 197, 198 

Cromwell, Oliver, 82 

Cromwell, Thomas, 61 

Cudworth, Captain James, 128, 129, 
130 

Cushman, Robert, 53, 138 

"Reasons and Considerations 
touching the Lawfulness of Re- 
moving out of England into the 
Parts of America ", 138 note 

Cushman, Thomas, 212 

Customs of England, 73-92 ; 288 
of Holland, 30, 44, 45, 46, 47 
of Indians, 141, 146, 149, 166. 167, 

168, 169, 253 
of New England, 215, 222. 233, 
247, 249, 258-278 

Dartmouth, (Eng.), 57 

Davison, Sir William, 14, 15, 16, 17, 50 



INDEX 



319 



Deaconess of the "anciente church", 
36 

Deane, Charles S., Secretary of the 
Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety, 237 

Deane, Eliza, 267 

Deane, Stephen, 266, 267, 268 

Delft, 16 

Delftshaven, 54, 55, 104 

Democracy, 37, 38, 44, 179, 184, 201, 
202, 229 

De Rasieres, Isaak, 118, 122, 123, 214 

Dermer, Captain, 144, 147 

Devonshire (Eng.), 84, 102 

Dexter, Henry M., x 

"Dictionary of Obsolete and Provin- 
cial English" (Wright), 310 note 

Diseases and their cures, among the 
Indians, 156, 157, 158, 159 
in England, 83, 84 

Dodge, Richard I., "Wild Indians", 
253 

Doncaster (Eng.), 63 

Donne, John, 68 

Dorchester, 216, 221 

Doty, Edward, 181 note. 280, 287 

Dover (Eng.), 61 

Doyle, John Andrew, 230 

Drayton, Michael, 68 

Dress in England, 31-35; 85, 86, 87, 
265 
in Holland, 30 

in New England, 133, 134, 136, 137, 
214, 263, 264, 265, 268, 272, 274 
of Indians, 146, 154, 166 

Drunkenness in England, 84 

in New England, 171, 177, 192, 
198, 251, 253, 255 

Dublin, 48 

Dudley, Governor Joseph, 243 

Dunster, President, 215, 216 

Dutch, 15, 16, 29, 36, 37, 38, 39, 44, 
46, 47, 49, 50, 53, 55, 73, 99, 118, 
123, 201, 207. 208, 220, 234 

Dutch intrigue, 99 

Dutch- American colony, 53 

Duxbury, 127, 128, 193, 200, 269, 
276 



Dyer, Marj', 202, 224 
"Dyetary" (Borde), 84 

East Anglia, 1, 25, 44, 104 
East Indies, 46 

Eaton, Francis, note. 181, 281, 286 
Eaton, Samuel, 281, 286 
Eaton, Sarah, 281, 286 
Economic Conditions (see also Lvnd) 
of England, 79, 90 

of Holland, 30, 39 

of New England, 104, 115, 116, 117, 
118, 125, 127, 182, 238, 277, 278 
Eden, Sir Frederic, 79 
Edinburgh, 48 
Education among Indians, 167 

in England, 64, 65, 66, 67 

in Holland, 274, 275 

of the Pilgrims, 132, 135, 170, 186, 
252, 272, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278 
Elector Palatine, 81 
EUot, John, 215. 216, 217 
EUzabeth Isles, 97 

Elizabeth, Queen, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 
16, 18, 24, 62, 64, 75, 76, 79, 86, 
88, 248 
Elvatham (Eng.), 86 
Ely (Eng.), 1 

Ely (seaman on Mayflower), 281 
Elzevir Press, 40 
Endicott, John, 133, 139, 256, 302 

note 
England in the 17th century, 60-90 

Amusements, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 

Buildings, 73, 74, 75 

Crafts, 72 

Customs, 73-92 

Diseases and their cures, 83, 84 

Economic conditions, 77, 79, 89 

Education, Religious, 64 
Secular, 64, 65, 66, 67 

Food, 63, 75, 76, 77, 89, 90 

Health, 84, 85 

Holidays, 69, 70, 71, 72 

Inns, 88 

Literature, 68 

Newspapers, 60, 64, 68 

Population, 78 



320 



INDEX 



Punishments, 80, 81, 82, 90 

Science, 60 

Trade, 27, 72, 79 
English, Thomas, 181 note, 281, 287 
English Reformation, 1, 10, 72 
Entertainment in England, 69 

in New England, 114, 146, 153, 169, 
288, 289 
Essex (Robert Devereux), Earl of, 16 
Evelyn, John, 82, 85 
Export duty, 200 

Falstaff, Sir John, 88 

Farming, 105, 110, 113, 114, 120, 121, 

125, 126, 151, 176, 196, 207, 235, 

266, 270, 273 
Faunce, Thomas, 109 
Ferdinand II, 91 
Finances, 184, 199, 200, 219, 238, 

239, 276 
"Fire Water", 171, 177, 251, 253 
First Days in the New World, 110- 

113, 232, 237 
Fishing, 51, 73, 97, 98, 104, 110, 115, 

120, 126, 144, 157, 176, 186, 200, 

207, 208, 219, 235, 252, 270, 

277, 299 
Fitcher, Lieutenant, 246 
Fleet Prison, 221, 306 
Fleet Street, 24, 32 
Flemings in England, 73 
Fletcher, John, 68 
Fletcher, Moses, 181 note, 281, 286 
Flushing (Holland), 15, 16 
Food in England, 63, 75, 76, 77, 89, 

90 
in New England, 98, 105, 112, 113, 

115, 117, 120, 122, 140, 145, 153, 

154. 157, 158, 159, 169, 245, 

270, 271, 301 
of Indians, 169 
on Mayflower, 96 
Scarcity of, 115, 116, 117 
Force, Peter, 249 
Forests of Cape Cod, 104, 153 
Fortune, the ship, 115, 225, 240 
Foster, George, 131 
Fotheringay Castle, 16 



Franchise, 184, 189, 202^ 223; for 

women, 236 
Freeman, 127, 182, 183 note, 184, 

189, 190, 199, 201, 202, 229 
His oath, 189 note 
Freeman, Edmond, 195 
Frenchman's Point (Agawam Point), 

118 
Fulham (Eng.), 73 
Fuller, Bridget, 276 
Fuller, Edward, 181 note, 214, 281, 

286 
Fuller, Dr. Samuel, 95, 109 

Will of, 130-137, 157, 181, 267, 

268, 280, 284, 298 note, 302 note 
Fuller, Samuel, Jr., 131, 132, 133, 

134, 135 
Fuller, Samuel (son of Edward 

Fuller), 281, 286 
Fuller, Thomas, 5, 7, 68 

"History of the University", 6 

note 
Funerals in New England, 136, 137, 

221, 222 
Furniture, see Household Furnish- 
ings 

Gainsborough Church, 31 
Gainsborough (Eng.), 4, 21, 22, 26, 

31, 40 
Games in England, 69, 70, 71, 72 

in New England, 258, 263 
Gardiner, Richard, 181 note, 281, 286 
Gardens of England, 75 

of New England, 111, 131, 204 
Gastheusen, 36 
Gayton, Edmund, 76 
General Court {see also Courts), 174, 
182, 183, 184, 185, 190, 191, 199, 
200, 201, 210, 239 
"General History" (Smith), 244 
Geneva, 1, 41 
Gift, the ship, 257 
Giles, Goodman, 267 
Goldcom, John, 8 
Goodman, John, 181 note, 281, 286 
"Good News from New England" 
(Winslow), 240 



INDEX 



321 



Gorges, Sir Ferdinand, 98, 147, 247, 
248, 256 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, 97 

Government (see also Laws), of Eng- 
land, 60 
of the Indians, 166, 167, 168, 169, 

176, 177, 178 
of the Plymouth Colony, 100, 101, 
102, 103, 122, 125, 139, 160, 
161, 171, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 
180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 
187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 194, 197, 
198, 201, 202, 218, 219, 220, 223, 
224, 229, 232, 236, 247, 251, 254, 
258, 259, 276, 277, 300, 306, 311 
See Officers of Government 

Governors (see also William Bradford, 
John Carver, Thomas Prence, 
Thomas Hutchinson, Joseph 
Dudley, John Endicott, Josiah 
Winslow), 182, 183, 184, 185, 
186, 190, 209, 214, 224, 226, 236, 
254, 266, 298, 303 

Granger, Thomas, 195 

Gravesend, 61 

Green, John Richard, 64 

Green, Mrs. J. R., "Town Life in the 
Fifteenth Century ", 72 

Green, Samuel, 239 

Greenleaf, Thomas, 203 

Greenwood, John, 2 

"Grievous Groans of the Poor", 80 

Grotius, Hugo, 64 

Guiana, 42, 98 

Guicciardini, Francesco, 274 

Guild Hall, 72 

Guilds, 5, 6, 7, 72, 180 
Blessed Virgin, 5 
Corpus Christi, 5, 7 

Habits. See Customs 

Hague, 16, 49 

Hale, Edward Everett, 20, 21 

Hale, Sir Matthew, 224 

Halifax, 210, 234 

Hallowell, Thomas, 193 

Hamburg, 45 

Hampton Court Conference, 20 



" Handkerchers buttoned and un- 
buttoned ", 265, 267, 268 

Hanson, Alice, 22, 133, 136, 231 

Hanson, John, 22 

Harlsborne, Margaret, 9 

Harrison, Robert, 12 

Harrison, Thomas, 82 

Harrison, William, 73, 74, 77, 85, 
88, 89 
"Description of England ", 79 note 

Harvard College, 172, 212, 215, 216, 
276 

Harvey, William, 60 

Hasty Pudding, 270 

Hatherley, Timothy, 129 

Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter", 193 

Health Conditions in England, 84, 
85 
in New England, 105, 111, 112, 
113, 115, 117, 141, 145, 150, 155, 
156, 157, 158, 159, 161, 207, 219, 
221, 275, 282, 286, 287, 304, 305 

Heeks, Mrs., 134, 135 

Henry, Duke of Lancaster, 7 

Henry the First, 18 

Henry VII, 8 

Henry VIII, 18, 60, 62, 76 

Herbert, George, 68 

Hereford, The Earl of, 86 

Heresy, 5, 228, 243, 307 

Hinckley Papers, 174 

Hind, John, 9 

"Hints for Travellers" (Leigh), 27 

"Historical Collection" (Rush- 
worth), 81 

"History of Plymouth Colony," 
(Bradford), 232-233, 236-238 

" History of the Post Office " (Joyce), 
61 note, 63 note 

"History of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in America" (Wil- 
berforce), 237 

"History of the Reformation of the 
Church of Scotland" (Knox), 
20 note 

"History of the University" (Fuller), 
6 note 

Historical Magazine, 49 



322 



INDEX 



Hoar, George Frisbie, 228. 238 
Hobomok, Indian messenger, 156, 

160, 161 
Holbeck, William, 280, 284 
Holidays in England, 69, 70, 71, 72 

in New England, 110, 114, 250 

Holland, 3, 12, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, 
28, 29, 30, 35, 38, 39, 42, 44, 
45, 47, 49, 52, 55, 58, 94, 98, 103, 
104, 105, 118, 179, 183, 215, 220, 
229, 231, 232, 274, 275, 298 

Amusements, 46 

Buildings, 55 

Canals, 55 

Cities, 30 

Customs, 30, 37-47 

Dress, 30 

Education, 274, 275 

Hospitals, 36, 37 

Language, 30 

Streets, 55 

Virtues, 47 

Women, Position of, 44, 45, 46 
Holland-American Line, 55, 81 
Holmes, John, 195 
Hopkins, Constanta, 280, 285 
Hopkins, Damaris, 280 
Hopkins, Elizabeth, 95, 280, 284 
Hopkins, Giles, 280, 285 
Hopkins, Oceanus, 95, 280 
Hopkins, Stephen, 95, 130, 145, 152, 

181 note, 198, 280, 284, 287 
Horse racing, 259 

Hospitality of Indians, 151, 153, 154, 
155 

in New England, 145, 146, 160 
Hospitals in Holland, 36, 37 
Household Furnishings of Indians, 
141, 157 note 

of Pilgrims, 266, 267, 269, 271, 272 
Houses. See Buildings 
Howland, Arthur, Jr., 260, 261, 262 
Rowland, John, 95, 109, 181 note, 

276, 279, 282, 285 
Howse, Elies, 302 
Hubbard, William, 237 
Hudson River, 99 
Humber River (Eng.), 29 



Hunt, Captain Thomas, 98, 143, 147 
Hunting, 104, 105, 112, 114, 115, 140, 

153, 154, 176, 186, 235, 252, 305 
Huntington (Eng.), 67 
Hunter, Joseph, 17, 230 

"Collections concerning the early 

History of the Founders of Port 

Plymouth ", 231 
Hurst, Grandmother, 273 
Hutchinson, Thomas, 237 
Hutton, John, 9 
Hutton, Sir Timothy, 63 

Idle River (Eng.), 29 

Immorality, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 

196, 197, 210 
Incendiarism, 190, 191 
Independent Congregation, 17 
Indian Compact. See League of 

Peace and Friendship 
Indian Rights, Protection of, 175, 

176, 177 

Indians, 97, 104, 105, 111, 114, 122, 
123, 124, 125, 126, 138, 139, 140, 
141, 142, 143, 144, 145-150, 151, 
152, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 
162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 

169, 170, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 

177, 178, 182, 185, 193, 194, 205, 
234, 235, 238, 244, 246, 250, 251, 
252, 253, 257, 288, 293, 296, 297, 
299, 303, 304 

Amusements, 166 

Buildings, 168 

Characteristics, 149, 166, 167, 252 

Children, 167 

Customs, 141, 146, 149, 166-169 

Dress, 150, 166, 167 

Education, 167 

Food, 169 

Government, 166, 169 

Religion, 168, 169 

Wars with, 139, 142, 161, 162-166, 

170, 172, 175 
Weapons, 169 
Women, 166, 16'T, 250 

Indian Wars, 139, 161, 164, 165, 166, 
170, 173, 174, 175 



INDEX 



323 



"Inhabitants among the Plymouth 
settlers", 126, 127, 199, 263 

Inns of England, 88 

of New England, 130 note, 198, 
222, 245, 259, 263 

Ipswich, 228 

Irish, John, Jr., 129 

Isles of Shoals, 256 

Islington (Eng.), 11 

James I of England, 20, 21, 24, 49, 
50, 51, 62, 63, 83, 100, 101, 103, 
119, 121, 148, 149, 154, 251, 261 

Jamestown, 91 

Jeaffreson, J. C, "Book About the 
Table," 88 

Jenny, John, 134 

Jewish Law, 185 

Johnson, Francis, 31, 32, 34, 35 

Johnson, Mrs. Francis, 33 

Johnson, George, 2, 32, 33, 34 

Joint-stock System, 182 

Jones, Captain, 93, 94, 99 

Jonson, Ben, 68 

Joyce, Herbert, "History of the Post 
Office ",61 note, 63 note 

Judicial System, 184, 186, 187, 188, 
189, 201, 210, 224, 226, 227, 255, 
276, 303, 307 
See also Laws 

Kennebec River, 144, 254, 300 
King Philip's War, 139, 170 
Kingston, 269 
Knox, John, 19 

"History of the Reformation of 

the Church of Scotland," 20 

note 

Lancaster, Henry, Duke of, 7 
Land, Distribution of. 111, 112, 117, 

121, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 

132, 139, 176, 182, 184, 186, 199, 

220, 239, 266 
"Landing" of the Pilgrims, 103, 109, 

110, 276 
Latham, William, 279, 282 
Laud, Archbishop, 220, 247, 248, 249, 

306, 307 



Laws (see also Government and 
Judicial and Legislative 
Systems), of England, 27, 28, 
48, 61 
of Holland, 50, 274 
of New England, 100, 122, 130 note, 
175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 182, 
184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 
191, 198, 201, 210, 218, 223, 224, 
225, 226, 246, 251, 258, 259, 260, 
262, 263, 276, 277 

League of Peace and Friendship, 
149, 151, 152, 154, 160 

Lechford, Thomas, 244, 306 

" Plaine Dealing, or News from New 
England ", 244 

Legh, Thomas, 8 

Legislative System, 183, 184, 185, 
189, 202, 218 

Leicester (Eng.), 61 

Leicester (Robert Dudley), Earl of, 
16 

Leigh, Edward, 27 

"Hints for Travellers", 27 

Leighton, Alexander, "An Appeal to 
the Parliament or Sion's Plea 
against the Prelacie ", 81 

Leonard, James, 263 

Leyden (Holland), 4, 5, 16, 35, 39, 
40, 41, 42, 43, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 
55, 57, 58, 103, 136, 160, 163, 
179, 180, 181, 232, 246 

Leyden Street, Plymouth, 55 

Leyden, University of, 50 

" Licensed taverners," 259, 263 

Lincolnshire (Eng.), 4, 28 

Literature in England, 68 
in New England, 272 

Litster, Edward, 181 note, 280, 287 

Little James, the ship, 236 

London, Bishop of, 51, 52 

London Company. See Virginia 
Company 

Longfellow, Henry W., 96 

Louis IX, 308 

Louis XIV, 91 

Lowell, J. R., V 

Luther, Martin, 19 



S24 



INDEX 



Lyford, John, 206, 208, 209, 210 
Lyon, Richard, 216 

Maas River, Holland, 55 

Macaulay, Thomas, 70 

Magdalen College (Cambridge Uni- 
versity), 67, 212 

"Magnalia" (Mather), 19, 215-217, 
231 

Manchester College (Oxford Univer- 
sity), 116 note 

Manchester (Eng.), 73 

Manhattan Colony, 99, 118, 225 

Manomet, 119 note, 142 

Mansfield, Lord, 224 

"Man Transfomi'd, or The Artificial 
Changeling" (Bulwer), 87 

Margeson, Edmund, 181 note, 281, 
286 

Marriage customs among Indians, 
168 
in England, 85 
in Holland, 47 

in New England, 128, 192, 194, 
200, 201, 219, 220, 247, 260, 
261, 262, 311 

Marsh, Jonathan, 185 

Marshfield, 276 

Martin, Christopher, 181 note, 280, 
284 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 9, 16, 19 

Maryland Colony, 225 

Mason, John, 164 

Masquerading, 258 

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 14, 71, 
99, 125, 133, 136, 137, 163, 172, 
173, 184, 202, 213, 215, 220, 
223, 224, 225, 228, 229, 230, 
238, 241, 244, 245, 257, 264 note, 
277 

Massachusetts Charter, 306 

Massacres of the Indians, 161, 164, 
173, 174, 175 

Massasoit, 114, 145, 147, 148, 149, 
150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 
157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 170, 
171 

Matacom. See Phiup 



Mather, Cotton, 19, 204, 215, 217, 
231 
"Magnalia", 19, 215-217, 231 

Mather, Richard, 215, 216, 217, 221 

Mathews, Albert, vii 

"Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety's Proceedings", 271 note 

May Day celebration, 250, 288-292, 
300 

Mayflower, the ship, 22, 50, 54, 57, 
68, 81, 93, 94, 101, 103, 105, 109, 
115, 141, 145, 179, 182, 204, 

229, 230, 232 note. 240, 269, 275, 
279, 281, 282 

Cargo, 94, 96, 105 

Cooking, 96 

Crew, 93, 94, 96, 140 

Food, 96 

Passengers, 48, 57, 95, 104, 181, 

230, 275, 279-287 
Sleeping accommodations, 96 

Mayflower Compact, 18, 100, 101, 
102, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183 
Signers of, 181 note 

Mayflower Descendant, 130 note, 265 
note 

MajTJole Song, 290 

Mead, Edwin D., 14 

Meeting House, 201, 204, 212, 213, 
219, 259 

Mendame, Mary, 193, 194 

Mendame, Robert, 193 

Merrymount. See Mount- Wolxas- 

TON 

Middleborough. 147, 152, 155, 172, 
173, 174 

Middleburg, 12, 16, 20 

Mildmay, Sir Henry, 216 

Military Activities, 90, 105, 113, 125, 
140, 142, 148, 161, 170, 172, 176 
177, 178, 182, 184, 186, 191, 199. 
200, 201, 214, 221, 246, 251, 252, 
255, 295, 296, 297, 299, 305 

Military Commander. See Stand- 
isH, Miles 

Milton, John, 68, 70 

Ministry. See Clergy 

Minter, Desire, 279, 282 



INDEX 



325 



Mohegans, 164 
Monatoquit River, 295 
Monhegan Island, 144, 163 
Moral laws, 190, 195, 199, 258, 259, 

260, 262, 263 
More, Ellen, 279, 283 
More, Jasper, 279, 282 
More, Richard, 279, 283 
Morrel, William, 205, 206 
Mortlake (Eng.), 73 
Morton, George, 240 
Morton, John, 277 
Morton, Nathaniel, 99, 181, 2S4. 236, 

237, 238, 240, 241, 243, 277 
"New England Memoriall", 181, 

240, 241-242, 243 
" Morton, Merry - Mount ". See 

Morton, Thomas 
Morton, Thomas, "of ClifiFord's Inne, 

Gent", 220, 245, 246, 247. 248, 

249, 250-256, 257, 288, 292 note, 

298, 299 note, 302 Jiote, 304, 306 
"The New English Canaan", 245, 

247, 248, 249, 253, 288-313 
Moryson, Fynes, 36, 44, 45, 46, 47, 

87,88 
"An Itinerary ", 37 note 
Mosquitoes, 207, 208 
Motley, John Lothrop, "United 

Netherlands ", 274 note 
Mount Hope, 172 
Mount- WoUaston, 245, 246, 250, 254, 

256, 257, 288, 292, 293, 294, 295, 

296, 297, 299, 300, 305 
" Mourt, G.". See Morton, George 
"Mourt's Relation" (by Bradford 

and Winslow), 111, 113, 139, 

158, 240 
Mullins, Joseph, 280, 284 
Mullins, Priscilla, 280, 284, 287 
Mullins, William, 181 note. 280, 284, 

287 
Murphy, H. C, 49 

Narragansett, 154 
Narragansetts, 164, 165 
Nason, Rev. Elias, 217 
Nassau River, 118 



Nauset Tribe, 143 

Needs of the early days, 113 

Neponset, 161 

Neponsets, 161, 163 

Plot of, 160, 161, 162, 163 

New England Company, 139 

"New England Memoriall" (Mor- 
ton), 181, 239, 240, 241-242 

"New England Trials" (Smith), 244 

Newfoundland, 147 

Newfoundland Company, 147 

Newgate Prison, 81 

New Haven Colony, 125 

New Netherlands, 53. See also New 
York 

Newspapers of 17th centiu^y England, 
60, 64, 68 

Newton, Isaac, 60 

New York, 49, 53 

Nonconformity, 18, 31, 51, 52, 233, 
248 

Norfolk, Duke of, 11 

Norfolk (Eng.), 12 

Northampton (Eng.), 12 

North Virginia Company, 98, 102, 103 

Norton, Humphrey, 226, 227 

Norwich (Eng.), 4, 12, 73 

Officials of the Plymouth Govern- 
ment, 184, 185, 190, 194, 200, 
201, 224, 247, 254, 255, 257, 259, 
277, 307, 311 
"Old Clothes Controversy", 31-35 
Oldham, John, 206, 209, 210, 256 
Oxford University, 1, 48, 66, 116 note. 
230 

Paine, Thomas, vii 
Palfrey, John G., 225 
Pamet River, 141 
Parker, Matthew, 9 
Parker, Mrs. Matthew, 10 
Parliament, 189 
"Particulars", 206, 207 
Pasonagessit, 288, 299 
Passetts, 45 
Patucxet, 119, 145 
"Paul's Walk", 69 
Pawtucket, 147, 174 



326 



INDEX 



Pecksuot, 162 

Peirce, Captain William, 209 

"Pelgrim Kade ", Delftshaven, 55 

Pemaquid Point, Bristol, Maine, 152 

Penn, Admiral, 264 note 

Penn, Sir William, 84, 151 

Pennsylvania Colony, 225 

Penobscot River, 98, 144 

Pepys, Samuel, 67, 83 

Pequots, 164, 165, 166, 167, 170 

Perkins, William, 2 

"Perth Assembly" (Calderwood), 50 

Peterborough (Eng.), 12 

Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 2 

Pewter of England, 74 

of New England, 265, 266, 269, 271, 
272 

Philip, son of Massasoit, 139, 164, 
170, 171. 172, 173, 175, 177 
Conspiracy of, 171, 172 

Philip and Jacob, Festival day of, 288 

Philip III, 91 

Phillips, Thomas, 219 

Pierce, Captain Michael, 124, 174 

Pilgrim Avenue (Delftshaven), 55 

Pilgrim Church, 16, 40, 126, 133, 
134, 135, 173, 180, 184, 187, 202, 
204, 205, 206, 207, 211, 212, 213, 
214, 215, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 
229, 242, 244, 247, 249, 264, 300, 
305, 306, 308-313 

Pilgrim Fathers, vii, viii, ix, 14, 21, 
94, 109, 260, 264, 270 

Pilgrim Hall, 94, 105, 270, 272 

Pilgrim Mothers, 106, 107, 174 

Pilgrim Press, 49, 50 

"Pilgrim Republic, The" (Good- 
win), X 

Pilgrim Sabbath, 198, 205, 206, 207, 
259, 264 

Pilgrim Virtues, 228, 229 

Pilgrims, before leaving England, 59, 
60, 71, 73, 77, 87, 89 
beginning journey to America, 55, 

57 
church of, 204, 205, 206, 208, 209, 
211. 212, 214, 215, 220, 222, 224, 
225, 228, 229 



contact with Indians, 138, 139, 140, 

141 note, 142, 143. 146, 147, 148, 

150, 151, 155, 160, 170, 171, 173, 

174, 175, 178 

first days in the New World, 99. 

101, 102, 106, 107, 109, 110, 113 

government, 179, 180, 198 

in books, 232, 234, 238, 241, 244, 

246, 247. 249, 252, 257 
in England, 3, 10, 12, 14, 21, 23, 

25 
in Leyden, 39, 40, 41, 51, 52, 54 
migration to Amsterdam, 26, 35, 

36 
new life, 115, 116, 122, 123, 125, 

126, 127 
social life, 258, 260, 261, 263, 264, 
269, 270, 271, 272, 274, 275, 
276, 277, 304 
voyage on Mayflower, 93, 96 
"Plain Dealing, or Newes from New 
England" (Lechford), 169 note, 
244 
Plymouth (Eng.), 35, 57, 58, 71, 102, 

136, 299 
Plymouth (Mass.), church in, 204- 
212, 219-229 
description of, 119-122 
early books about, 230-257 
first days in, 108-118 
Indians in section of, 138-178 
landing at, 94-107 
laws of, 179-203 
fife in, 123-137 

social life in, 258-278, 288, 289, 
292, 299, 300, 301 
Plymouth Church Records, 234 
Plymouth Company. See North 

ViRGiNi.\ Company 
Plymouth Rock, 12, 52, 108, 109. 

140, 174, 203 
Poole, "Book of Old Plymouth 

Wills," 273 note 
Poor Law of Elizabeth, 79, 80 
Pope, 18, 247, 310, 311 
Population among Indians, 145, 147, 
166 
in England, 78 



INDEX 



327 



in New England, 125, 263, 275, 

287 
Pory, John, 115, 116, 123 
Postal System of England, 17, 51, 

60, 61, 62, 63 
Poverty in England, 79, 80, 90 

in New England, 115, 117, 201, 

305 
Prayer Book, 246, 247, 293, 303, 312 
Prence, Elizabeth, 261, 262 
Prence, Rebecca, 134, 136 
Prence, Thomas, 131, 134, 135, 225, 

226, 227, 260, 261 
Presbytery, Scottish, 20 
Press, Liberty of, in England, 48 

in Holland, 47, 48 
Priest, Degory, 181 note, 281, 286 
Primary Assembly. See General 

Court 
Prince Society, 249, 250 
Prince, Thomas, 237 
Printing, 40, 44, 48, 49, 50, 64, 239, 

250, 275 
Privy Council, 28, 52, 209 
Protestantism, 18, 25, 91, 222, 274, 

312 
Provincetown, v, 103, 139, 141 note, 

275 
Prower, Salamon, 280 
Proxy Voting, 183, 190 
Psalms, 41, 215, 216, 217 
Public Record Office in London, 234 
Punishments in England, 80, 81, 82, 

90 
in New England, 176, 186, 190, 

191. 192, 193, 194, 195, 198, 199, 

210, 219, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 

231, 248, 255, 257, 258, 259, 260, 

261, 285, 293, 299, 301, 303 
Purchas, Samuel, 244 

"Purchas's Pilgrims ", 244 
Puritanism, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 24, 51, 

70 
Puritan Party, 5 

Puritans, distinguished from Pil- 
grims, vii, viii, ix, 138 
go to Holland, 14, 19, 20, 23, 24, 

25,49 



in America, 139, 228, 229, 233, 

247, 257 
in England, 1, 2, 6, 70, 71 

QUADEQUINA, 148, 150 

Quakers, 203, 222, 223, 224, 225, 
226, 227, 264 note 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 14, 68, 76 

"Reasons and Considerations touch- 
ing the Lawfulness of Removing 
out of England into the Parts of 
America" (Cushman), 138 note 

Record Book (Colony), 186, 191 

Reformed Church, 183 

Rehoboth, 174 

Religious education in England, 64 
in New England, 206, 207 

Religious persecution, 18, 20, 21, 23, 
24, 90, 223, 224, 226, 227, 228, 
256 

Resources of New England, 249 

Reynor, Rev. John, 212 

Rhode Island Colony, 203, 225, 226 

Rhodes, Hugh, "Boke of Ntu-ture or 
Schole of good manners ", 84 

Ridley, Bishop, 9 

Rigdale, Alice, 281, 286 

Rigdale, John, 181 note, 281, 286 

Ring, Andrew, 135, 266, 267, 268 

Ring, Mary, 135, 265, 266, 267, 268 

Roads in England, 87 
in New England, 201 

Robinson, Rev. John, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 
17, 21, 22, 25, 40, 41, 54, 56, 103, 
163, 180, 187, 205, 228, 229, 233 

Robinson, John, of Nottinghamshire, 
3 

Robinson, Marcye, 129 

Rogers, Joseph, 280, 286 

Rogers, Thomas, 181 note, 280, 286 

Roman Catholic Church, 23, 25, 81 

Roosevelt, Theodore, v 

Rotterdam, 16, 55 

Roulfe, Richard, 8 

Rouse, John, 226, 227 

Route of the Pilgrims, 26, 28, 29, 
30, 31, 39, 57, 58, 93 



328 



INDEX 



Roxbury, 216 

Rush worth, John, "Historical Col- 
lection ", 81 note 
Rutlandshire (Eng.), 11 

St. Andrew's Chubch, Norwich, 
4 

St. Benedict's Church (Cambridge, 
Eng.), 5 

St. Gaudens, Augustus, x 

St. Mary's Church (Cambridge, 
Eng.), 5 

St. Paul's Cathedral (Eng.), 69 

St. Peter's Church, Leyden, 40 

Salaries of clergy, 200, 219 

Salem, 211, 256, 281, 283, 286 

Samoset, 145, 146, 150, 151 

Samson, Henry, 280, 285 

Sandwich (Eng.), 73 

Sandys, George, 68 

Sandys, Sir Edwin, 50, 51 

Saquish River, 120 

Sassafras, 104 

Saturnalia, 250 

Schools of England, 65, 66, 67 
of Holland, 274 

of New England, 135, 186, 200, 
201, 207, 274, 275, 276, 277 

Science in England in the 17th Cen- 
tury, 60 

Scituate, 174, 194, 195, 212 

Scott, Sir Walter, 137 

Scottish Presbytery, 20 

Scrooby (Eng.), 4,"^ 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 
25, 26, 28, 31, 35, 38, 39, 44, 47, 

50, 51, 58, 63, 231, 232, 278 
Scrooby Church, 31, 35 
Separatist Church, 21 
Separatists, in England, 2, 5, 10, 22, 

23, 24, 71, 91 
in Holland, 30, 31, 38, 40, 41, 49, 

51, 52, 54 

in the New World, 205, 206, 208, 
211, 221, 247, 248, 289, 291, 292, 
302, 305, 306 
Shakespeare, William, 14, 61 

"Shakespeare's Country" (Mory- 
son), 38 note 



" Shakespeare's Europe" (Mory- 
son), 45 note, 46 note 
Sherwood Forest (Eng.), 21 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 14, 16 
"Simple Cobbler of Agawam" 

(Ward), 228 
Slaney, John, 147 
"Sleep, Rising and Dress", Borde, 

83 note 
Sleeping accommodations among In- 
dians, 155 
among Pilgrims, 272 
in England, 74 
on Mayflower, 96 
Sloup's Bay, 119 
Smelt River, 131, 132 
Smith, John, 31 

Smith, Captain John, 97, 98, 99, 143, 
244 
"New England Trials," 244 
"General History," 244 
Smith, Ralph, 205, 211, 213, 214 
Smyth, John, 10 

Social conditions in England, 77, 79, 
80, 89, 91 
in Holland, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45, 46, 

47 
in New England, 126, 127, 188, 
190-199; 260-263 
"Social Life in Old New England" 

(Crawford), 46 note 
Social life of England, 68, 69, 70, 71, 
72 
of Holland, 46 

of New England, 114, 146, 250, 
258-278; 288, 289, 301 
"Sojourners", 126 
South America, 42 
Southampton (Eng.), 54, 57, 103, 180, 

181, 281 
South wark (Eng.), 11 
Southwick, Cassandra, 224 
Southwick, Lawrence, 224 
Southworth, Edward, 233 
Southworth, Mrs. Edward, 233 
Sowle, George, 181 note; 279, 283 
Speedwell, the ship, 54, 57, 240 
Spencer, Edmund, 14 



INDEX 



329 



Sports in England, 68 
in Holland, 46 
in New England, 114, 154, 258 

Squanto. See Tisquantum 

Stam, Jacob Frederick, 249 

Standish, Alexander, 128, 129, 130 

Standish, Barbara, 128, 129 

vStandish, Charles, 128 

Standish, Josiah, 128, 129 

Standish, Lora, 128 

Standish, Mary, 128 

Standish, Miles, 94, 103, 104, 105, 
111, 113, 124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 
133, 142, 143, 148, 151, 162, 163, 
175, 181 note; 182, 200, 254, 255, 
280, 284, 292, 294, 296, 297, 301, 
302 note 

Standish, Miles, Jr., 128, 129, 269 

Standish, Rose, 280, 284 

Stanhope, Sir John, 17 

Star Chamber, 81 

Stationers' Company, 48 

Story, Elias, 279, 283 

Stratford (Eng.), 14 

Street lights in England, 60 

Strutt, Joseph, "Complete View of 
the Dress and Habits of the 
People of England ", 86 note 

Stubbes, Philip, 70 

"Anatomy of Abuses ", 250 note 

Stubbs, Dean, 1 

Succotash, 270, 271 

Sican, the ship, 160, 162, 163 

Swansea, 172, 173 

Symons, Thomas, 132 

Table Customs in England, 85, 89, 
90 
in New England, 269, 271, 272, 273 
Tangmer, Henry, 7 
Taunton, 171, 173, 263 
Taverns, see Inns 
Taxes, 199, 200 
Taylor, Jeremy, 68 
"Temperwell, Joshua," 302, 305 
Temple, Dorothy, 260 
Terms of the "Adventurers," 53, 54 
Thacker, Elias, 12 



Thanksgiving Day under Bradford, 
114 
The English Schoolmaster ' ' 
(Coote), 65 

"The Grammar School" (Brinsley), 
66 note 

"The New England Canaan" (Mor- 
ton), 245, 247-248, 249-250, 
253, 288-313 

"The Pilgrims and Their History" 
(Usher), 104 

Thirty Years' War, 91 

Thomson, Edward, 280, 284 

TiUey, Edward, 181 note, 280, 285 

Tilley, Elizabeth, 109, 276, 280, 282, 
285 

Tilley, John, 181 note, 280, 282, 285 

Tillie, Ann, 280, 285 

Time, Old Style, 106 note. 111 

Tinker, Thomas, 181 note, 281, 286 

Tisquantum, 147, 148, 150, 151, 152 

Tithe of Mint and Commin, 312 

Tobacco, 259 

Tolethorpe (Eng.), 11 

"Town Life in the Fifteenth Cen- 
tury" (Green), 72 

Town meeting, 160, 201, 219 

Towns of England, 73, 88 
of Holland, 30, 39 
of New England, 112, 125, 126, 
148, 151, 173, 175, 182, 185, 190, 
200, 201, 202, 219, 222, 232, 239, 
276 

Trade in England, 27, 72, 79 

in New England, 51, 104, 105, 108, 
119, 122, 123, 124, 162, 168, 176, 
187, 197, 207, 234, 235, 239, 246, 
251, 252, 253, 254, 292, 293, 300 

Transportation conditions in Eng- 
land, 87 

Travel in England, 27, 28, 62, 63, 87, 
88 

Treaties, 149, 151, 152, 154, 160, 163. 
171, 172, 301 

Trent River (Eng.), 21, 22, 29 

Trevore, William, 281 

Trinity College (Cambridge Univer- 
sity), 2 



330 



INDEX 



Truro, 140 
Tuke, Sir Brian, 61 
"Tumult in Fleet Street". 24 
Turner, John, 181 note, 281, 286 
Tuxford (Eng.), 63 

Tyburn (Eng.), 82 

Udall, Nicholas, 2 

Unity of Colonies of New England, 

125, 173, 202 
Usher, Roland G., 52, 104, 234 

"The Pilgrims and Their History", 

52, 104 

Vanities of the Widow Boys, 31, 

32, 33 
Vaughan, Henry, 68 
Vaughan, William, 83 
Venable, Admiral, 264 note 
Villages. See Towns 
Vines, George, 82 
Virginia Colony, 42, 76, 97, 100, 102, 

115, 116, 225, 246, 287 
Virginia Company, 51, 53, 99, 179, 

180 
Vliet, Holland, 55 
Voltaire, Frangois, 151 
Voyage of the Mayflower, 94-103 

WoLLASTON, Captain, 245, 246 

Wallen, Goodwife, 131 

Walton, Izaak, 68 

Wampum, 119. 122, 123, 167, 169 

Wandsworth (Eng.), 73 

Ward, Nathaniel, "Simple Cobbler of 

Agawam", 228 
Warren, Richard, 181 note, 280, 285 
Wars with the Indians, 139, 161, 164, 

165, 166, 170, 173, 174, 175 
Washday, First, in New England, 106 
Water, as a beverage, 84, 110, 117, 

140, 207 
"Water bayley", 200 
Welde, Thomas, 215, 216, 217 
Wessagusset. See Weymouth 
West Indies, 282 
Westminster (Eng.), 81, 82 



Westminster Hall, 81, 82 
Weston, John, 53, 57 
Weston, Thomas, 160, 162, 163 
Weymouth, 160, 161, 162, 293, 294, 

296 , 

White, Bridget, 4 J 

White, Peregrine, 142, 280, 284 .' 
White, Resolved, 280, 284 / 

White, Susana, 280, 283, 284 
White, William, 181 note, 280, 284 
Wtitgift, Archbishop John, 2 
"History of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in America" (Wil- 
berforce), 237 
Wilberforce, Bishop, 237 

"History of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in America", 237 
"Wild Indians" (Dodge), 253 
Wilder, Roger, 279, 282 
William the Silent, 26 
WiUiams, John, Jr., 262 
Williams, Roger, 132, 135, 156, 164, 

165, 211. 213, 214, 223 
Williams, Thomas, 181 note, 281, 286 
Wills, 28, 127, 186, 265 
of Fuller, Dr. Samuel, 130 
of Hopkins, Stephen, 130 note 
of Ring, Mary, 265. 266. 267. 268. 

269 
of Standish, Miles, 127, 128, 129. 
130 
Windsor. Canon of, 73 note, 89 
Winslow, Edward, 5Q, 94, 99, 111. 
113, 115, 124, 134, 147, 148, 150, 
152. 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 
160, 161, 181 note, 220, 221, 228, 
235, 240, 264, 279, 283, 284, 306 
"Good News from New England", 

240 
"Brief Narrative of the true 
grounds of cause of the first 
planting of New England' , 240 
Winslow, Elizabeth, 279, 283 
Winslow, Gilbert, 181 note, 281, 287 
Winslow, John, 130, 134, 136 
Winslow, Josiah, 130, 138, 151, 172, 

265 
Winter, Christopher, 226, 227 



INDEX 



331 



winter, Jane, 194 

Winthrop, John, 133, 213, 214, 302, 

303. 305 
Witchcraft. 168. 190, 223, 224, 225 
Wituwamet, 162, 163 
Women, Position of, among Indians, 
166. 167 

in Holland, 44, 45. 46 

in New England. 107, 236, 263, 277 
Wood, Henry, 136 
Wool, 72. 73 
Wright, Priscilla, 132, 133 



Wright, Will, 131, 132, 133, 134 
Wychffe, John, 1, 18 

Yarmouth (Eng.), 73 
Yarmouth (Mass.), 194, 195 
York (Eng.), 88 
York, Archbishop of, 21, 50 
Yorkshire (Eng.), 73, 231 
Yorkshire pudding, 145 
Young, Alexander, 234 

Zealand, 12, 26 



BOOKS BY MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD 



OLD BOSTON DAYS AND WAYS 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Gilt top, in box. 
' ' Rich mines of material have been investigated and drawn upon. 
Letters and long extracts from diaries ^\Titten in the early days of the 
young repubUc, with their quaint expressions and intimate details, 
enhance greatly the picture of that period. The book is full of quaint 
and interesting facts." — Chicago Tribune. 

ROMANTIC DAYS IN THE EARLY 
REPUBLIC 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Gilt top, in box. 
" Pictures entertainingly the early social life in Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, Richmond, and 
New Orleans, with which many noted and charming people were 
identified. Contains information not readily available elsewhere. 
Good photographs and full index." — A.L.A. Booklist. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN 
THEATRE 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Gilt top, in box. 
A book that will start trains of reminiscence in the minds of all 
who love the theatre and remember its "good old days" when 
Forrest, Fechter, Rachel, Jefferson and Booth or Charlotte Cushman 
were the idols of the hour. The book contains information and mate- 
rial nowhere else accessible and is illustrated throughout with rare 
portraits and many reproductions of choice old prints, the whole form- 
ing a collection of great interest and value. 



SOCIAL LIFE IN OLD NEW ENGLAND 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Gilt top, in box. 
" A diverting account, illustrated by quotations from many original 
sources and anecdotes of famous people, which makes a vivid pic- 
ture." — A.L.A. Booklist. 

LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, BOSTON, MASS. 



I 






.■i>- 



^O 






<^ 





. • ^ - o 







,; 






.v-:?! - 






> 



<^ 



"-V 






.H ^ 







>^ 










■S^Cr 



O M O ^VJ 

0^ .! 



.V-^. 



i*?*- c <""» 






o V 




' '^ ^ SsSSi-SSSssr- 



w! 



Treatment Date: 



^AV 



ISSKKEEEEB 

PRESERKAIIUN TECHNOLOGIES LP 
1 ' t Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 










1^ . r 



^^■' 













0" 



- \^ . . "V * ° - ° 

-, ._,. vV-^ 



-» o 










'■ft OH" Ay ^P' » » ■• V) " ~^ * o (I 







S V 



■^-"a^-- '• 




♦ .^ 







o V 



^" .' 



